'Cinderella' is believed to be around 2000 years old and, with umpteen variants, it's hard to imagine that anyone could find an unexplored angle for this well-loved fairy tale.
But Joseph Coelho's zombified retelling, inspired by the Grimm Brothers' dark interpretation, is on a whole new level of delightful gruesomeness combined with a contemporary freshness that children will adore.
Zombierella is the first of three titles in Walker Books' Fairy Tales Gone Bad series, and is Coelho's debut book, suitable for KS2, comprising a prologue, eight chapters, and an epilogue.
Written in lyrical narrative verse with occasional rhyme, Coelho's glorious imagination runs wild in this rather rotten tale, while Freya Hartas' striking comic line drawings, with glitzy gothic bling, bring the whole thing to life — or perhaps death!
Narrated eerily by a creepy librarian, the embellished plot is immediately familiar while the story roles are wonderfully subverted. Unlike Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes which have a similar lighthearted irreverence, the main characters are Black or brownish in skin colour, a welcome breath of fresh air from the usual white faces. The Black stepsisters are also Fake sisters who look like they're failing to emulate Destiny's Child. The Godmother is a skeletal Fairy of Death with a stunning Afro, who turns perished pets into coach drivers, and the prince is an anonymous blood-starved vampire, possibly of Roma heritage, with a penchant for amputated feet. Importantly this representational shift includes grieving Black protagonist Cinders, so-called because she carries her dead mother's ashes in a skull-shaped pendant on her necklace, a lovely foreshadowing cue to later events.
Following a fatal accident, Cinders transforms into Zombierella with the help of The Fairy of Death and attends the prince's three-night dancehall fest at Grimmsville Mansion. Despite becoming a funky member of the undead, Zombierella styles out her new look to perfection prompting the inevitable sibling rivalry.
Thankfully after all the death, decay, hardcore dancing, and quite a bit of grisly dismembering, there's a literally heartwarming reunion for Zombierella and her prince, though that's not quite the end of the story.
The strong poetic style makes this text a wonderful piece to read aloud to children, potentially leading to some improvisational drama or performance poetry. Children could also compare and contrast Zombierella with other versions of the fairy tale. Additionally, the rich descriptive vocabulary, vivid illustrations, and interesting layout mean the book is well suited to a discussion of how these elements add meaning and affect the reader. Children could also look up the definitions of trickier unfamiliar words encountered in the text.
This humorous horror is a deliciously vile 21st-century reimagining of a timeless classic that will have children squealing and howling in yucky delight. I look forward to the next deviant fairy tale from this award-winning duo.
Resources for teachers and parents
Guide for teachers and parents
|
Genre
|
Narrative: story with poetic features, supported by illustrations
|
|
Child-led interests (EYFS)
|
N/A
|
|
Age group (EYFS, KS1, KS2)
|
KS2
|
|
Curriculum links/topics
(EYFS/NC)
|
English Spoken language (Y1-6): participate
in discussions, presentations, performances, role play/improvisations and
debates Reading comprehension (Y5/6): continuing to read and discuss an
increasingly wide range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference
books or textbooks; increasing their familiarity with a
wide range of books, including myths, legends and traditional stories, modern
fiction, fiction from our literary heritage, and books from other cultures
and traditions; identifying and discussing themes
and conventions in and across a wide range of writing; making comparisons within and
across books; preparing poems and plays to read
aloud and to perform, showing understanding through intonation, tone and
volume so that the meaning is clear to an audience; checking that the book makes sense
to them, discussing their understanding and exploring the meaning of words in
context; asking questions to improve their
understanding; drawing inferences such as
inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and
justifying inferences with evidence; predicting what might happen from
details stated and implied; summarising the main ideas drawn
from more than 1 paragraph, identifying key details that support the main
ideas; identifying how language, structure
and presentation contribute to meaning; discuss and evaluate how authors
use language, including figurative language, considering the impact on the
reader
|
|
Suitability
|
whole-class teaching,
storytime, school/class library, home reader
|
|
General features
|
third-person
narration in verse; page-turn reveals; some dialogue; some poetic stanzas, some rhyme; rich evocative, exaggerated, elaborate
descriptive language; unusual/unfamiliar words (unthumbed,
decrepit, brambles, wizened, phlegm, bloated, auburn, entrée, cadaverous, Tally-ho, yokels,
bronco, frivolity, nasalized, phlegmed, draperies; bewitched; audaciously;
canoodle); structured in chapters, prologue,
and epilogue; eye-catching whole-page illustrations that support the story
|
All the Black children's books that I review are checked against my Jericho Benchmark.
Comments
Post a Comment