Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast

Author: Robin McKinley
Publisher:
Copyright:
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 247
Reading Level: Ages 9 to 12 (Barnes and Noble)
Summary: This is a retelling of the story of Beauty and the Beast. Beauty’s real name in this version is Honor but Beauty is what everyone has called her since she was young even though she was plainer than her two older sisters Hope and Grace. Their father owns a merchant shipping company and they are a wealthy family living in the city. Grace was to marry one of the men who worked for her father in three years after he had time to go out and make his fortune so he could provide a good life for her. When his ship as well as several other ships that belonged to her father, Grace is devastated with the news that he probably is dead. Because of the tragedy their father’s business goes downhill and he loses everything. A man in the city named Ger wants to marry Hope and offers to let the family live with them in a house in the town where he is from. They sell most of their stuff and set off for their new life. They live in what are humble conditions for a family of their size but they are happy and grow fairly comfortable in their new home. When Beauty’s father has to go on a trip back to the city for a short time he wants to bring things back for his daughters. Beauty just asks him for some rose seeds to plant around their new home. On his way back, he tries to take a shortcut through the forest which is rumored to be haunted or enchanted. He gets lost and shows up at the Beast’s castle. He is taken care of and sets out the next day to head home but not having been able to get rose seeds for Beauty he cuts a beautiful rose from the Beast’s garden. The Beast confronts him and says that for stealing he either must return to the castle and would never return or that one of his daughters must come but that if one of them was to come instead of him, it must be of her own free will. Beauty decides she should do this and convinces the family that this is for the best. She goes to the Beast’s castle. The Beast is very hospitable but he still scares Beauty because he looks terrifying. Each day the Beast asks Beauty if she will marry him. Each day she says no. As they begin to spend more time together, Beauty begins to feel more comfortable around him and finds herself wanting to spend time with him. Beauty learns, through one of the enchantments of the castle, that the man who wanted to marry Grace is still alive. The Beast says she can go home for one week and tell her sister the good news before she marries another man that she doesn’t love. He tells her that she must be back at the end of a week or he could die. She ends up staying one day longer and when she tries to return she can’t find the castle. She finally finds the castle and she returns to find the Beast in a very weak condition but while she was at home she realized that she loves the Beast. She tells him that she will marry him and he transforms into the handsome prince. Her family shows up for triple wedding (her own, her sister’s and her father’s remarriage) and the family lives together in the castle happily ever after.
Who would you recommend this book to? I would recommend this book to older girls. I think that this story is particularly appealing to females.
Potential problems or conflicts: The only thing with this one is to make sure, as with fairy tales and other traditional literature, that girls know it's fantasy and don't develop the Cinderella complex.
My reaction: I loved this book. It was kind of slow in the beginning because the author fills it up with so much detail but once it got into the main story plot I loved it and cruised through it!