Stories for All Ages

After recently rereading two novelizations of the classic fairy tale "Beauty and The Beast" (by the same author!) I decided to investigate other novelizations of classic fairy tales beyond the 500 Kingdoms Series by Mercedes Lackey. Robin McKinley does have a novelization of Sleeping Beauty called Spindle's End. I read it and seem to remember that it was pretty good. However, the novel I was really thinking about was one that was in my school library as a child, a novelization of "Cinderella", written by Eleanor Farjeon.

That novel, The Glass Slipper, is, as it turns out, the novelization of a Cinderella play written by Eleanor Farjeon, herself the product of a theatrical and literary family. Sadly, my local library does not have a copy but they did have a copy of another of Eleanor Farjeon's books which I used to own, but apparently don't anymore. Which is too bad, because it's an excellent book - for the young, and the young at heart.

The book is called The Little Bookroom, and it's a collection of various stories by Eleanor Farjeon - many of which I understand to have already been published in various other novels. They are stories for children to be read by children who are more advanced readers or to be read to children by a happy and compliant adult.

There are a wide variety of stories in this collection. The tales range from pure myth to fairy tale to more realistic options. Settings include Paradise, Ancient Greece, the land of Workaday, a country cottage, a train station, and the back lanes of London. Farjeon populates her stories with an entire world of characters: fairies, princesses, kings, little girls, little boys, a goldfish, a Clumber Spaniel pup, and one very special donkey. Farjeon is a master at drawing complete characterizations and stories in only a few precious pages. There are no sappy sweet Disney princesses here! Good characters do generally win out, and bad characters get their comeuppance; but not every time. Sometimes the stories have only the bare minimum of plot - in others the story comes fast and furious. I especially enjoy the rich and detailed descriptions of clothing, furnishings, and landscape in the book. As well, her descriptions of the poverty endured by some of England's children will make you sad. Some stories will move you to tears: see especially "The Connemara Donkey", "And I Dance Mine own Child", "San Fairy Ann", and "The Kind Farmer".

In summary, then, this is a beautiful and precious book and there should be a copy in every home where there is a child, and, indeed, in homes where there are no children! I very much regret giving away my copy: I did not realize what a jewel this book truly is. Among Farjeon's heroes and heroines there is tremendous scope for imagination for even the least imaginative of children. The book deserves a place on every bookshelf beside the more well-known fairy tales. A true children's classic for all ages.