by Steffani Raff
In a day when princesses have been boiled down to beautiful ball gowns comes a new kind of fairy tale.
Fall under the spell of a “Once upon a time . . .” where beauty is bigger than a reflection, where wisdom makes girls extraordinary, and where curses are broken through the strength and character of unlikely heroines.
A magnificent collection of short stories written in fairy tale prose, The Ravenous Gown captures the essence of a stronger, smarter princess the kind that actually lives happily ever after.
Top Critics Consensus Review
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Fosters emotional and social development - 77%
77%
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Has a clear message – explicit or implicit - 71%
71%
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Helps children to understand their emotional experience - 73%
73%
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Developmentally appropriate - 84%
84%
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Captivating for children and their imagination - 95%
95%
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Builds social bonds - 93%
93%
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Supports loving relationships - 85%
85%
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Promotes laughter - 89%
89%
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Encourages creative play - 72%
72%
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Is inventive - 87%
87%
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Promotes diversity - 91%
91%
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How likely would you be to recommend this book - 91%
91%
84%
User Review
( votes)
Comments Rating
( reviews)
This story, written by a mother in the hopes that her two daughters would grow up with a great self image, is a spin on many classic fairytales from a whole new perspective. This story asks the reader to look at the stories we’ve grown to love, like Cinderella, from a moral perspective. Stories so concerned with vanity, that children grow up reading, encourage the idea that to be a beautiful, heroic princess, you must wear a large ball gown and with heels and perfect hair. To be a dashing knight, you must look gallant. But, this book depicts several different scenarios in which a heroic person was made no less heroic by the clothes they wear. This is a great book for modern society, when media puts so much emphasis on looks and their importance in determining the worth of a person, especially young girls. This book emphasizes the role of bravery and kindness in making a person beautiful rather than the clothes they wear.
After each story, there are questions for the reader to answer, to analyze the meaning behind the fable. These stories ask the real deep questions that young women in this country should be asking themselves. Does our power really come from our clothes? How was the princess able to turn the dragon into butterflies with her mind and not her looks? These important “powers” that every girl has are encouraged to flourish in this book that teaches girls to focus most on how they feel as a person rather than an object. This book does not make use of vivid imagery, but rather seeks meaning more form the message at hand and would be geared toward slightly older children.
This book immediately gives a clear message of the goal of the author, to tell stories about real beauty. Instead of providing comical entertainment, drama, or fantasy, this book brings up some serious lessons for young people to take as advice. I like the approach to educating this book took, the use of fictional stories. The imagery and use of characters such as “fairy godmother” bring the children’s’ attention in so they can hopefully take away a lesson from each story. While the language was age appropriate and fluid, I also think the content was interesting to keep a younger crowd invested until the end. The use of dialogue and capital letters put emphasis on certain words and gives the book life. The age group best for this book I think lives between ages 10-14; however, it’s content is appropriate for all ages. This may be an introductory book for parents to read to their kids, maybe one story a night. Little girls are known for loving princesses and the use of that in conjunction with education was a great idea.
I thought this book was really funny and entertaining! This book is a series of short stories that are fantasies but they have a twist to them. Each story is funny and unique in its own way and shows that perfection isn’t necessary to have something good happen. This book is great for children to learn about why perfection isn’t something for which they should strive.
This book has a lot of little stories that are fantasies but with interesting endings. Two endings that are really interesting to me are the second and third stories. These two stories end with love and acceptance for one’s own self. This is a good example for children because in these stories, the characters are not perfect but they love themselves anyway. Children need to know that even when they are not perfect, self-love is the most important thing. I think this story does a great job showing just how important self love is in a life. I think that this is especially important for young women because they have to live under the stress of societal rules and expectations.
Self-love is an important characteristic of anyone’s life. The stories in this book prove why self love is important and that perfection isn’t always necessarily the most important thing in someone’s life. I think that this is especially important for young women living under societal rules. This book is a great tool for children!
As a lover of princess tales and magical stories, I really enjoyed this book and think that it had a empowering message for little girls to take away. The author’s use of well known fairytales with different underlying meanings and twists in the stories was amusing. I do wonder, though, which age group the author intended to this book to be aimed at. Little girls are unlikely to read such a long fairytale story and preteens nowadays do not seem to be interested in prince and princesses as much. If this is intended to be a children’s book I would suggest it be broken up into multiple shorter books, and possibly even picture books. Overall, I believe the essence that little girls can achieve anything they wish and that they do not need to fit into the societal norms was presented well in each of the 14 stories.
I thought this book was ok. I did enjoy the spin of well-known princess tales; however, I am curious the age group for this book. Traditionally younger kids read these types of stories so maybe by adding a picture or something visual for each story might increase their interest more. The stories are good but especially if a parent is reading this, the child is probably going to want something to look at while it is being read. I did however enjoy the authors take on the stories, I think that will grab kid’s attentions since the traditional stories are what we typically hear growing up.
Though the stories are written very nicely, I think if anything a parent should be reading the stories to their children. Since the book seems to be intended for younger children, adding some illustrations may add more likeliness to the book. I do like how it is a different version of some traditional princess stories, it makes it more recognizable for children to remember. I am not sure which age group would be most likely to read this book since there is a slight lack of pictures.