Friday, March 27, 2009

Beauty and the Beast retold and illustrated by Jan Brett- Traditional or Folk Literature


This book told the familiar fairy tale of “Beauty and the Beast,” and it is an example of folk literature. A beautiful girl named Beauty is forced to live with a hideous beast so that the beast would not kill her father, who stole one of the beast’s roses. The Beauty is scared at first, but ends up enjoying the beast’s company. The beast asks Beauty to marry him each night, but she always turns him down. One day, Beauty begs the beast to let her go home and tell her family good-bye for the last time, and then she will live with the beast forever. The beast told her to be back in a month or else he would be heartbroken. The beauty had so much fun at home that she lost track of the date and forgot to go back. One night, she had a dream about the Beast dying, and she realized that she loved the Beast, so she went back to him. The Beast was about to die, but Beauty told him she loved him and wanted to marry him, and her tears landed on him. The beast suddenly turned into a handsome prince. The beauty had broken a spell, and Beauty and the Prince lived happily ever after!
Like “Snow White,” this book was pretty easy to read and many students are familiar with the story. Therefore, it would be great for English Language Learners or struggling readers. The easy words and familiarity of the story would help the students be able to read the book. Strong readers would enjoy this book as well because many children love fairy tales, and children must not forget the fun and joy of reading a good book. This story would also be a great way to teach the children a moral. Today, everyone seems very caught up in appearances. This book shows that it is what is on the inside, not the outside, that counts. The beauty fell in love with the hideous beast because he was kind to her. Even if he did not turn into a handsome prince, she would have still loved him. This book can teach children that they must get to know people before judging them, and that looks and appearances can be deceiving. Hopefully this might prevent any bullying or mean comments about students who are not extremely attractive. Folk literature is great for teaching morals!

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