From Cover to Cover (7 page)

A quick consultation with Southey’s version, which can be found in Iona and Peter Opie’s
The Classic Fairy Tales
, reveals that most of these details came directly from the original source. Goldilocks’s interjections were Crossley-Holland’s invention, but the description of the bears, the trail of evidence, and the effect of the voices on a sleeping Goldilocks were all part of the 1837 version. By comparing his version to the original, we can see that Crossley-Holland’s skill comes through in his deliberate decisions based on thorough research and in his lucid retelling that restores the story’s original charm.

Other retellers have strayed a bit further from the source in their retellings of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” but have come up with equally enchanting versions. Byron Barton’s version,
The Three Bears
, takes a minimalist approach by scaling the text down to the least number of words that can be used to tell the story. His concise text is well matched with boldly colored, uncluttered illustrations, making the edition perfect for very young children who are hearing the story for
the very first time. James Marshall’s text in
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
adds many humorous asides; on noticing a lot of coarse brown fur around the bears’ house, for example, Goldilocks surmises, “They must have kitties.” The author, too, adds occasional comments himself, in the spirit of Dr. Southey’s moral asides. Marshall’s tone, combined with his wry illustrations, makes it clear that he is inviting children to laugh at Goldilocks’s bad manners and errors in judgment, mistakes they themselves would
never
make. His edition is ideal for children who are already familiar with the story and who are thus likely to enjoy Marshall’s unique additions. Margaret Willey strays a bit further from the original by making the three bears’ abode more rustic and bearlike in
The 3 Bears and Goldilocks
. When Goldilocks comes upon the crude little cabin that has floors strewn with “…leaves and berry stems and pine cones and fish bones and thick, brown fur,” she pitches in to tidy the place up, thinking that whoever lives there will appreciate her efforts. But the physical labor makes her hungry and tired, leading her to sample the bowls of porridge and the beds. In this retelling the author provides a bit of invented backstory for children who are familiar with the original story and have been left wondering about Goldilocks’s motivation.

NARRATIVE STYLE

The most successful retellings of traditional stories for children maintain something of the flavor of their oral origins. As Betsy Hearne has pointed out, these stories should come alive when they’re read out loud: Repetition, rhythm, and robust sound are often important features in oral stories.

Julius Lester is especially gifted as a teller of tales from African-American traditions and is perhaps one of the best writers when it comes to capturing the sound of oral storytelling in written form for children.
Lester achieves this by using short sentences, natural dialogue, humorous exaggeration, surprising metaphors, and by occasionally addressing his audience directly.

Julius Lester’s narrative is not only easy to read aloud but also easy for listeners to understand and follow, due to his faithfulness to oral traditions.

Margaret Read MacDonald is a professional storyteller whose oral style is reflected in her written retellings of folktales. Like Lester, she uses a lot of short and natural-sounding dialogue. She also uses recurring phrases to give the story a predictable pattern, making it easier for children to listen to and remember. In
Mabela the Clever
, line breaks and boldface and uppercase type are used to add emphasis for anyone reading it aloud.

Many storytellers choose to take on a more formal tone in their retellings to reflect the serious nature of the tale they are telling. But even with stories of this kind, the original oral style is generally direct and to the point. Note, for example, the style of the following Lenape tale from John Bierhorst’s collection
The White Deer, and Other Stories Told by the Lenape
, recorded directly from an oral source, Lenape elder Nora Thompson Dean:

Compare that authentic oral style with the opening sentences Abenaki writer-storyteller Joseph Bruchac uses in a tale of the neighboring Passamaquoddy, “The Girl and the Chenoo”:

While we can see that Bruchac’s written narrative is a bit more polished, he still maintains the qualities of an oral tale by quickly establishing the time, setting, and main character of the story and then moving right into the action. Very few words are wasted on physical descriptions or on creating a context for the story. And his tone is respectful without being reverential.

Because all traditional literature has its origins in oral storytelling, it is important to look closely at the language that is used in any tale you evaluate. Does the text read well aloud? What words contribute to the quality Dr. Hearne describes as “robust sound”? Do you notice elements that give the text a flavor of oral storytelling, such as colloquial speech or occasional use of second person or questions? Do you notice a repetition of any catch phrases, such as the Three Bears’ observation “Someone has been sitting in my chair”?

The oral origins of the tale will also dictate aspects of plot and character. Since these tales move along quickly, with little time to establish setting and character motivations, we expect rapid transitions and concentrated action. The text itself might seem choppy and disjointed if the author doesn’t use vivid language or establish patterns through repetition. Consider, for example, how
The Three Bears
might read without its richly patterned language:

Given this basic bare-bones version, we can see how much the story depends on the use of repetition and pattern in the language that is used to retell it. In trying to determine the quality of a retelling, it can be helpful to think of the story in terms of its most basic plot outline, as I have done above with “The Three Bears.” This will make the reteller’s language stand out. How has the author used language to make the retelling engaging and easy to listen to? What descriptive phrases and actions are used to characterize the key players in the story? You will note, for example, that the three bears lose all their distinguishing characteristics when they are no longer described in terms of size or their connections to Goldilocks’s response to their individual chairs, beds, and bowls of porridge.

ILLUSTRATIONS

At the end of the twentieth century, we saw a tremendous increase in the publication of picture book versions of folktales for children, partly to meet the increasing demands for multicultural literature and partly to meet the increasing demands from artists who use picture books as a means of showcasing their art. It was not unusual, for example, to see more than one
picture book version of the same story published in any given year. While there have been fewer picture book folktales published since 2000, they continue to be a mainstay of children’s literature.

Because traditional literature is by its nature generally devoid of extensive description, these stories are ripe for countless illustrative treatments by artists with distinctive and diverse styles. Four picture book versions of “Hansel and Gretel” published within a five-year period, for example, contain remarkably similar texts—all were taken from faithful English translations of the story as it appeared in the Brothers Grimm’s 1812
Children’s and Household Tales
. But in the hands of four different illustrators, no two versions look alike.

Austrian artist Lisbeth Zwerger emphasizes the isolation and abandonment of Hansel and Gretel by making the two solitary children the focal point of every illustration. Very little attention is given to background details of any kind, and often we see only their two figures set against a backdrop of a somber earth tones that fade into nothingness. Conversely, American artist Susan Jeffers pays great attention to the children’s natural surroundings, with leaves, flowers, birds, and other forest creatures in great abundance placed in the foreground of nearly every illustration. Her art suggests that it is human contact, not the forest, that holds danger for the pair.

Another American artist, Paul O. Zelinsky, gives the story a more literal interpretation, with his richly detailed oil paintings that suggest the works of seventeenth-century Dutch genre painters. His attention to clothing styles and household interiors puts the story into a definite historical context. So, too, do the illustrations by British artist Anthony Browne; however, he places the story a little closer to home by setting it in the late twentieth century: Hansel and Gretel’s bleak existence, as they sit around a bare kitchen table, includes a blaring television in the background; and, as they lie in bed at night, a bottle of Oil of Olay sits on
their stepmother’s dresser. Browne’s illustrations also add a psychological layer to the story by subtly suggesting that the stepmother and the witch are one and the same.

Personal tastes aside, none of these versions is necessarily superior to the others or a more faithful rendition of the original tale. Each one stands out as distinctive; and happily there is plenty of room for them all. By looking at multiple versions of the same tale, we can even sharpen our evaluative skills, as it leads us to think about those elements that are truly original and to consider how well they complement the story.

Complications arise when an artist attempts to illustrate a story from outside his or her realm of cultural experience. If the artist has little or no background in a particular area and is unwilling or unable to do thorough research, he or she is in danger of misrepresenting the story through illustrations, especially if an attempt is made to imitate “native” styles. It is very difficult for an outsider to extract details effectively without an understanding of the overall context from which they come. That is not to say it can’t be done. Ed Young, for example, is known for his attention to authentic detail in the artwork he creates for traditional stories from other cultures. In Kimiko Kajikawa’s
Tsunami!
, for example, Young accurately depicts the clothing, hairstyles, and architecture characteristic of mid-nineteenth-century Japan.

Beyond judging the quality of the illustrations themselves, as you would do with any picture book, think about how well they complement the story. Has the artist tried to give a sense of the place and culture from which the tale comes and, if so, has he or she succeeded? Does the style the artist used blend well with the tone of the story? What details has the artist added to expand characterization or define setting? Does the artist add a personal interpretation to the story through the use of mood or symbols?

COLLECTIONS

In addition to picture-book editions of single tales, many traditional stories are published in collections of stories which are generally aimed at children from ages eight to twelve. While these collections may include occasional illustrations, the emphasis here is on the stories themselves, and there is generally some unifying characteristic that binds them together. They may be stories from a particular nation or ethnic group, for example, such as Sheldon Oberman’s
Solomon and the Ant, and Other Jewish Folktales
, or they may be stories of a particular type, as in Jane Yolen’s collection of folktales from around the world with strong female protagonists,
Not One Damsel in Distress
.