Thursday, September 23, 2010

The Magic Circle by Donna Jo Napoli

I just finished reading The Magic Circle, by Donna Jo Napoli, and it's one of my favorite books by her.

The Magic Circle

A lot of the time I find Napoli's style of narration to be a distraction from the characters she is trying to create--this is a personal opinion and I know that her style works for many readers. However, in this case, I think her normal voice fits so well with the unnamed protagonist in this retelling of Hansel and Gretel--that is to say, the witch.

And Napoli has done an impressive job of taking a character typically represented as wholly evil and making her into a sympathetic protagonist. I won't say, of course, just how she does it, because I wouldn't want to give anything away. But if you're a fan of new viewpoints in old fairy tales, I definitely recommend it!

http://www.donnajonapoli.com/


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