2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion

FIRST QUARTER CHALLENGE: RETELLINGS
Duration: January 1 - March 31, 2015

For this challenge, you will read PAIRS of books/stories.

Read a modern retelling AND read the story its based on. If you have previously read the original story, there's no need to reread it.

These Listopias may help:
Mytholigies and Retellings of Fairy Tale Classics
The Best Fairytales and Retellings

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Theresa~OctoberLace is the leader of this challenge! :)

FIRST QUARTER CHALLENGE: RETELLINGS.
Duration: January 1 - March 31, 2015

For this challenge, you will read PAIRS of books/stories.

Read a modern retelling AND read the story its based on. If you have previously read the original story, there's no need to reread it.
Goal: 1 pair
Fairy Tail is The Goose Girl by Marguerite de Angeli Pages 31 DONE
The modern story is The Goose Girl / Shannon Hale pages 383 DONE

I'll try three pairs, one for each month.

Cinderella and Cinder
Beauty and the Beast and Beauty
Peter Pan and Peter and the Starcatchers

I have so many of these on my bookshelves! This challenge is perfect for me. I'll try for 3.

1. The Madman's Daughter & The Island of Dr. Moreau

2. Masque of the Red Death & The Masque of the Red Death

3. Alice in Zombieland & Alice in Wonderland

The movie is imprinted on my heart but I've never actually read the original.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Dorothy Must Die

I'll go for three pairs.

So far I'm thinking...

Frogged or/and Enchanted and The Frog Prince

Would anyone like to lead this challenge?

I will try these three,

1.Snow White & The Huntsman and Snow White
2.Beauty Sleep and Sleeping Beauty
3.Robin Hood: The Story behind the legend and Robin Hood

Would these work?

The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty and Sleeping Beauty

Ulysses and The Odyssey

If this is what you have in mind, I think I could volunteer to lead this challenge.

Here is a question? What if I have already read the majority of the classics?

Can I just read the retellings? I very rarely have any desire to reread things I've already read.

Yes! That works. As long as you're familiar with the classic, that should be fine.

This looks like fun! Count me in.

I'm in for 2!~

Theresa, I think those would work well and we would love to have you lead this challenge.

Kara wrote: "Yes! That works. As long as you're familiar with the classic, that should be fine."

Oh then I might read a Peter Pan retelling for this. I read Peter Pan last year and hated it so haha...

I'll jump in with 5 then!

3/5

1. The Children of Odin: The Book of Northern Myths by Padraic Colum - This is a retelling of many of the major myth in Norse mythology. I really enjoyed this version.

2. The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes by Padraic Colum - this is a retelling of Cinderella. It was a short listen ( I listened to a version from Librivox. ) It wasn't nearly as interesting as the Odin retelling that I just finished by Padraic.

3. The Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Theodore Roszak - This is a retelling (from another perspective) of Frankenstein - It was quite tragic. :(

I'll try for 4 pairs

Okay, then! This thread will be for tracking our members and their progress. Updated through Message #18:

Adriana 2/3
Angelique 4/5
Cassandra 6/6 COMPLETED!
Claire 1/2
Cristal 3/3 COMPLETED!
Daphne 3/5
Elizabeth 0/1
Heather 1/3
Izavel 0/1
Julie 0/3
Kadijah Michelle 2/3
Katie 0/1
Kylie TBD
Lois 1/1 COMPLETED!
Mary Pat 4/4 COMPLETED!
Sherry 2/2 COMPLETED!
Sheryl 3/4
Sirius 0/2
Theresa 0/4
Theresa-OctoberLace 2/3
Vernice 3/3 COMPLETED!

On this thread I'll try to list the pairings we've all chosen in case anyone needs suggestions.

Retelling ---> Original


Alice in Zombieland ---> Alice in Wonderland

Beauty ---> Beauty and the Beast

Beauty Sleep: A Retelling of "Sleeping Beauty" ---> Sleeping Beauty

The Children of Odin: The Book of Northern Myths ---> Norse Mythology

Cinder ---> Cinderella

The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty ---> Sleeping Beauty

Dorothy Must Die ---> The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Enchanted ---> The Frog Prince

Frogged---> The Frog Prince

The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes---> Cinderella

The Madman's Daughter ---> The Island of Doctor Moreau

Masque of the Red Death ---> The Masque of the Red Death

Peter and the Starcatchers ---> Peter Pan

Robin Hood: The Story Behind the Legend ---> Robin Hood

Snow White and the Huntsman---> Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Ulysses ---> The Odyssey

I think I've captured all the pairings so far. If I've picked up the wrong version of any retellings, let me know. For the originals, I've linked some, but just listed others that are generally published as a story in an anthology. I'll try to keep the list updated as we go.

Have fun reading!

Alice in Blunderland: An Iridescent Dream by John Kendrick Bangs


Here is another retelling of Alice in Wonderland. This one was written over 100 years ago, but it's still incredibly hilarious, and the social commentary in this book is completely relevant today.

Another one Theresa is and

and

and

Awesome list! I forgot I had Outlaws of Sherwood so I'll definitely try to read that this quarter.

Count me in for 4 - Although I could easily do my entire reading for the year just on this challenge - between fairytales and legends, historical retellings and other great rewrites (The Oz series and the reworkings by Maguire...) but I go with some classic Shakespearean retellings:


Queen Mab and Romeo and Juliet

Serenissima /Shylock's Daughter and Merchant of Venice

Fool and King Lear

I'm also doing Kissing the Witch and various fairytales (doing this for another challenge so it fits here)

I finished my first fairy tale. It was so interesting to see where my memory of Cinderlla differs from this classic version of the story.


Finished January 3
4 stars.

1/6

Hi Ladies,

I'll try for 3 combinations, please.

I've read Peter Pan last year, so I will read a retelling on that. And I have read The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, so I will try and read Sleeping Beauty

I will have to think about the third set.

Finished my 3rd for this challenge.

3/5

3. The Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Theodore Roszak - This is a retelling (from another perspective) of Frankenstein - It was quite tragic. I read Frankenstein several years ago, and was always bothered by what the motives of the characters were. Roszak did a great job at giving a reason why many of them acted the way they did.

Finished January 4
3 stars.

2/6

This challenge is perfect for me. I have a set of three books that meet the goal.
I read Jane Eyre two years ago, and loved it! Wide Sargasso Sea and Jane Eyre's Husband have been on my to read list forever.
Sticking with books I already own (because my reading goal this year is to read what is already on my shelves), I can't think of any other pairs for this challenge, but if I find something I will post it.

Please put me down for 2.

I have read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a child and read it to my kids, so Dorothy Must Die got me curious.

I have yet to decide what my 2nd pair will be but will update when I do.

I've edited Message #18 so I should have everyone who signed up through message #30 listed with their goals and books read. I've got lots to do today, but I'll update the list of pairings in message #19 sometime this weekend.

I read my first pair:
and The Frog Prince

*Quite different from The Frog Prince which had no kissing! It also had a bratty princess which was not the case with this one. I'm interested to see if any retelling of The Frog Prince talks about Henry - the Prince's loyal friend? servant? I forgot what he was to him but I found that part really interesting.

1/3 pairs done

Last year I read The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty knowing it was a "retelling" and I thought, yeah, okay, she's woken up by the prince, but then there's a whole story after it that has nothing to do with the original.

But now I've read The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood / La Belle au bois dormant by Charles Perrault and I discovered that the story didn't end with the prince woke the princess with a kiss, had a party and lived happily ever after!

1/3 pairs done

I got a pair, considering I've been meaning to read the original anyways. This is an awesome challenge! So, here's my pair:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Pride and Prejudice.

I read my second pair:

and The Goose Girl

*Very similar to the original tale - the author added more to her story and it was very descriptive and wonderful.

2/3 pairs done

I've updated Message #18 to include all participants and the number of books read through Message #35.

I would like to join with three pairs of retellings.

My first pair;

Cinder

and of course Cinderella.

Scarlet - Red riding hood read 24/2/15

Splintered - Alice in Wonderland read 8/3/15

3/3 complete

Hi,

Last year I read Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie, so naturally I had to read a book based on that for this challenge. So I read The Child Thief by Brom. It's definitely a lot darker than Peter Pan and nothing compared to disney's Peter Pan.

2/3

PS, I've registered for 3 combi's, but I'm already geared up for 4, and I really would also like to read a combi with Alice, so can you change my target to 5, please?

Because I'm already having so many books to read, for now I'll I'm to two pairings, which are

1. Peter Pan and Peter and the Starcatchers
2. Sleeping Beauty (READ ALREADY) and Briar Rose

Message #18 has been updated to this point. That includes my finish of The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty and Sleeping Beauty.

Hi All, I hope you all are having happy readings:)

I have actually finished two sets of retellings, so I'd like to update my list.

1. I read Jane Eyre last year, and in the last month, I finished two retellings: Wide Sargasso Sea and Jane Eyre's Husband - The Life of Edward Rochester. Both were great, and I am looking forward to reading more retellings of romantic classics. I am quite impressed with the genre.
2. I grew up with the stories from Grimms Fairy Tales. My favorite was Hanzel and Gretle. I just finished UnEnchanted, which was a retellings of that story and Little Red Riding Hood.

I just finished my first pair. Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin and The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe.

I also just read Cinderella illustrated by Camille Rose Garcia. It is a beautiful edition! Does anyone know of a good Cinderella retelling?

Kadijah & Heather, I've updated message #17 with your finishes. Heather, I found a list on Goodreads of Cinderella retellings:

https://www.goodreads.com/genres/cind...

Read the Brothers Grimm Cinderella story and





1/2

Sign me up for 3. Don't really like the older stories, so will try for something that I've already read instead of reading another one. Does it count if you watch the movie instead of reading the book? Just for the original...

I finished another combination:
Cinder and Cinderella

3/5

I've completed my first pair - Shakespeare's King Lear and Christopher Moore's Fool

Updated: Completed 2/2 pairs =4 books total

1. Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George [Read 2/10/2015] AND
The Twelve Dancing Princesses by by Jacob Grimm & Wilhelm Grimm [Read 2/10/2015]

2. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Other Stories (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland #1) by Lewis Carroll [Read 1/3/2014] AND
Splintered by A.G. Howard [Read 1/11/2015]

Message #18 has been updated for all books read. I'm sorry I'm behind, but I've been working 7 days a week since the beginning of January.

No worries, Theresa! Thank you for leading. I hope work slows down for you soon.

Finished February 15
3 stars.

The original Peter Pan is a little bit odd. The concepts are great, but the language is really heavy, so I ended up liking the idea of the story more than the execution.

3/6