There have been many attempts to rewrite the traditional tales of fairies, magic and princes into modern humor. Cliches, advertisements and cartoons have been adapted using toad princes, beauties and beasts.
In this version, Brooke, a playwright, uses conscious effort to alter the events and language of five familiar tales to make new, humorous renditions.In "The Waking of the Prince," Prince Valorian kisses the sleeping beauty, "I have won my way past the forest of thorns and the evil fairy who guarded your bower in dragon shape to awaken you from your hundred-year slumber."
But this less-than-impressed lass demands her rights. "Do you have any form of identification with you? . . . Your clothes are a mess!"
This is a story of royalty but also of a dragon, Ignispirus, who is in molt and has heartburn. He is most reluctant to give up the prince's sword from his collection of lootincluding an astrolabe, an anemometer, a potato peeler, a barometer and a rolling pin.
The language of this and the other pieces is a combination of old and Cockney English, American slang and modern tongue-in-cheek.
The basis of the second story, "The Growin' of Paul Bunyan," lies in the philosophical differences between Johnny Appleseed, who loves to plant apple trees, and Paul Bunyan, who can cut them down with one swoop of his axe. When Johnny gives Paul his very last seed challenging him to make it grow, the twist of the two American folk heroes comes to play.
Like a fable, the moral is clearly defined: "A little man who chops somethin' down is still just a little man; but there's nobody bigger than a man who learns to grow."
Growing is also the sub-theme of "The Fitting of the Slipper," a take-off of the Cinderella story. The irony of this version is that the glass slipper doesn't fit Cinderella, either! But the Prince, who is obsessed with a Wicked Inner Prince, finds the dirty chamber girl a delight with her Cockney twang and muddled mind. He seems to care about little. "It isn't fitting that a Princess dance on her wedding night in shoes that do not fit her."
The play on language is wonderful in this stroy, and I giggled out loud when Ella admitted, "I clean up better than you'd expect . . . You try 'avin' a conversation without usin' any `H' words an' see 'ow precise you sound. An' if you want stateliness, just you 'op up onto a pair of glass 'eels."
Another American folk hero is spoofed in "The Working of John Henry" when John not only saves the buried steam engine but completes both races. An over-zealous newspaper story of the event adds to the humor.
"Jack and the Beanstalk" is revised and reworked with machine guns, trucks, humanitarian pleas, James Bond tactics and TV commercials.
"The Telling of a Tale" is a personal experience of a child who has had stories told to him by an Uncle Jack all his life.
Uncle Jack is a real `teller' who leaves an impression on the lad, "The telling of a tale links you with everyone who has told it before. There are no new tales, only new tellers, telling in their own way, and if you listen closely you can hear the voice of everyone who ever told the tale."
This collection is a treasure of contemporary humor for children ages nine and up. These five compact stories could be models for adolescent writing of spoofs and certainly should delight an adult who is willing to look at a fresh new approach to an old old tale.
- Marilou Sorensen is an associate professor of education at the University of Utah specializing in children's literature.