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

Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast
reviewed on + 1452 more book reviews


Ah, how much I enjoy the writing of Robin McKinley! I had forgotten until I read this delightful version of Beauty and the Beast. Writers whose words make seem to move flawlessly through the story until you've finished are so very talented. Robin McKinley is one such author. This version pictures Beauty as the youngest of three daughters who is a tomboy with the key interests of horseback riding and reading. When their father loses his fortune the family is forced to auction off the remainder of their belongings and move into a small cottage with a son-in-law to be near a dark forbidding forest. The family is warned never to go into the forest for those who enter never return. When father is lost during a snowstorm he finds himself within the forbidding forest. He meets a beast when he picks a rose from the beast's rose garden and must either forfeit his life or give the beast one of his daughters. The youngest, a tomboy, believes that she is least important in the family and is determined to take her father's place. And, the story unfolds from that point. It's so well done that I highly recommend the read to both young and old.