Books

Red Robin Hood: A Collection of Alternative Fairy Tales

Red Robin Hood image.jpg

Fairy tales have been passed down throughout the ages, where different cultures have recorded unique variations of the same fundamental stories. The SurLaLune series, for example, has entire books of all the different versions of Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, etc.

But there are some versions that have been passed down much less reliably over time, and after working with a team of highly skilled researchers from only the best institutions from around the world, we are excited to premiere here a preliminary list of their titles, alongside brief summaries. We can only hope that as research continues the details of these stories will similarly be brought to light, to delight children’ ears just as they did in ancient times. Continue reading “Red Robin Hood: A Collection of Alternative Fairy Tales”

Classical Music Stories

Classical Music Stories: Rapunzel’s Daydreams

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From the composer of Clair de Lune comes piano music that is equally dreamy, equally magical…

Classical Music Stories is a series that connects music to your favorite books and characters. Since listening to classical music can be like hearing a story, imagining specific stories that match the music can make it that much more fun and accessible! Continue reading “Classical Music Stories: Rapunzel’s Daydreams”

Music

Stock Characters You Can Hear in Classical Music

butler stock character

“In the old times, when it was still of some use to wish for the thing one wanted, there lived a king whose daughters were all handsome, but the youngest was so beautiful that the sun himself, who has seen so much, wondered at her beauty each time he shone over her.”

-The Frog Prince

In many stories, there are stock characters: the evil stepmother, the beautiful queen, the creepy vampire, the clever detective (and of course, the butler did it!) … There may always be variations, and characters may not always be explicitly transparent as stock characters, but they’re Continue reading “Stock Characters You Can Hear in Classical Music”

Classical Music Stories

Classical Music Stories: Beauty and the Beast

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What better way to celebrate the release of the live action Beauty and the Beast movie than to share a piece that encompasses all of the magic of the story? This piece really brought to life certain scenes in the fairy tale for me Continue reading “Classical Music Stories: Beauty and the Beast”

Music

Repetition, Fairy Tales, and Classical Music

Fairy tale castle

Have you ever thought about how much repetition there is in music? If you read my last post on the subject (Repetition in Pop Music, Classical Music, and Poetry) then you probably have! And since you guys seemed to like that post a lot I’m back to talk about other types of cool musical repetition! Continue reading “Repetition, Fairy Tales, and Classical Music”

Classical Music Stories

Guided Tour: Little Red Riding Hood in Classical Music

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Below is a step by step “tour” of a short piece imagined in relation to the story of Little Red Riding Hood. The timings beside each paragraph correspond to the timings on the video so you can follow along if you wish. You can either listen to the piece first (it’s only about a minute and a half long) and then read the story, read first and then listen, or do some kind of combination thereof. There is no right or wrong way! Continue reading “Guided Tour: Little Red Riding Hood in Classical Music”

The Other Stuff

If Sherlock Lived In Cinderella’s World (And Other Book Swaps)

Sherlock Cinderella

1) If Winston from 1984 lived in the world of Harry Potter, he would be the first to believe Voldemort had returned.  (#paranoid)

2) If The Great Gatsby took place in the world of Anna Karenina, Gatsby Continue reading “If Sherlock Lived In Cinderella’s World (And Other Book Swaps)”

Books

Creative Book Photography (Plus Four Quick Book Recommendations)

Why recommend books the normal way when you can recommend them with pictures? (Confession: I really just wanted to share these pictures I took.  But I also love each of these stories!)

Batman Tally
My Batman mask fits her face scarily well… In any case, I can’t help but feel that a Batman version of Tally Youngblood would be phenomenal.  Dystopia + Batman = YES.

Continue reading “Creative Book Photography (Plus Four Quick Book Recommendations)”