{"id":2408,"date":"2012-08-19T00:01:06","date_gmt":"2012-08-19T06:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2408"},"modified":"2012-08-19T00:01:52","modified_gmt":"2012-08-19T06:01:52","slug":"7-imp%e2%80%99s-7-kicks-293-featuring-andrea-dezso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2408","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #293: Featuring Andrea Dezs\u00f6"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>
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“…My troll fianc\u00e9e explodes in frustration. MOTL \/ and I take the treasure and get out of there. \/ I’m a king now with three kids and a spaniel. I rule \/ in the daytime,
but at night I’m just a dad who puts \/ the kids to bed. …”
— From “East of the Sun and West of the Moon”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center><\/p>\n

Remember how we got a bit dark and grim\/Grimm a couple weeks ago<\/a><\/strong>? I’m gonna do that again today, because I just can’t pass up the opportunity to post some of the illustrations of Andrea Dezs\u00f6<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n

And, to be clear right off the bat, this is an illustrated book, but it’s not a picture book for young children. This is very much a YA\/adult title.<\/p>\n

Many of you may have already seen this collection of free verse poems, Ron Koertge’s<\/a><\/strong> Lies, Knives, and Girls in Red Dresses<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, released in July by Candlewick. U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis<\/a><\/strong> has said it’s “the best antidote I know to the sanctimonious sanitizing of fairy tales.” (Once I read that, I knew I had to read this book myself.) <\/p>\n

Here, Koertge isn’t afraid to get gruesome, subversive, and downright nightmarish in his re-telling of 23 classic fairy tales. The blood-red endpapers give you a taste of this, followed by an invitation right off the bat from our author: “Do you want to sleep? Find another storyteller. Do you want to think about the world in a new way? Come closer. Closer, please. I want to whisper in your ear.”<\/p>\n

This is the world of Ever After, and this ain’t no Disney. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This is the world of Cinderella’s<\/a><\/strong> bitter, discarded stepsisters, Sarah and Kathy: “…As we entered \/ the church, Ella’s vengeful birds plucked out our eyes. \/ Then nobody wanted us. We were monstrosities, \/ blind and lame. \/ So here we are in this deep coffin of sisterhood. \/ We will hold each other and kiss but now one\/ of us pretends to be Death and the other his \/ grateful bride.” <\/p>\n

This is the version of Andersen’s<\/a><\/strong> “The Little Match Girl”<\/a><\/strong> as only Koertge can imagine it: “She’s selling CDs on the corner, \/ fifty cents to any stoner, \/ any homeboy with a boner.” <\/p>\n

This is poor Mrs. Bluebeard<\/a><\/strong>: “Her husband’s a serial killer, and her bodice is wet \/ with tears, but there’s a chance her brothers \/ will show up like winning lottery numbers.”<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n

“Everybody says the moral of the story \/ is that short guys can be cunning \/
and brave. \/ But I think the moral is that children pay \/ for the sins of their parents. Ask anybody \/ who hates to go home after school. …”
— From “Little Thumb”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center><\/p>\n

And the miller’s daughter of the Brothers Grimm’s<\/a><\/strong> The Robber Bridegroom<\/em><\/a><\/strong> who, after the traumatic, cannibalistic events she witnesses, “finds men untrustworthy now.” (Can you blame her?) “She prefers \/ to live alone and teach Feminist Theory & Practice \/ at the local community college.”<\/p>\n

This is a world in which the teen Little Red Riding Hood (“Like, where to even start,” she opens) wants<\/em> to be swallowed whole: “Anyway, it’s weird inside a wolf, \/ all hot and moist but no worse than flying coach to Newark…”<\/p>\n

And this is, in my favorite poem of all, the Beast of Beauty and the Beast<\/em><\/a><\/strong> stating:<\/p>\n

We’re happy now. We’re very,
\nvery happy. But I have to admit
\nthere’s not much to do in Ever After.
\nIt’s always sunny and 78°. Every
\nnight the fireworks light themselves.<\/p>\n

With a sigh, sometimes, I brush
\nmy perfect teeth and remember when
\nthey were fangs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The book has been described as no less than “fiendishly clever” (Publishers Weekly<\/em>), “a wicked send-up of nursery tale morality” (Gregory Maguire<\/a><\/strong>), “sophisticated, witty and unnerving” (School Library Journal<\/em>), “bewitching” (Betsy Franco<\/a><\/strong>), “insanely original” (Sonya Sones<\/a><\/strong>), and—my favorite description—“a swell mix of the comical, concrete, and macabre” (Horn Book<\/em>). (The latter review asks high school teachers and librarians, “[n]eed to grab a restive class’s attention? Seek no further.”) <\/p>\n

Dezs\u00f6’s illustrations—they look like cut paper, but a copyright-page note says they were created digitally—are dramatic and set just the right tone. She’s fearless, in fact. These illustrations are bold, haunting (in more ways than one), and bone-chilling in spots. <\/p>\n

Want to know how the book closes? It gave me goosebumps, no kidding. The poem from which this very last verse comes is called “Wolf”:<\/p>\n

This is our forest. Perfect before you came.
\nPerfect again when all your kind is dead.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For more information, here<\/a><\/strong> is Kelly Fineman’s<\/a><\/strong> review at Guys Lit Wire<\/em>. <\/p>\n

LIES, KNIVES AND GIRLS IN RED DRESSES. Text copyright \u00a9 2012 by Ron Koertge. Illustrations copyright \u00a9 2012 by Andrea Dezso. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.<\/em><\/p>\n

* * * * * * *<\/center><\/p>\n

Note for any new readers: 7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks is a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. New kickers are always welcome. <\/p>\n

* * * Jules’ Kicks * * *<\/strong><\/font>
<\/center><\/p>\n

You know how, when you’re in the middle of several good books, all you want to do is curl up and read? That’s me this week. I got up to type this post, but I think I’m going to head back to my warm covers and keep reading reading reading. I’m sure there were at least seven separate good kick-like things to my week and I promise to be more garrulous next week, but y’all … these books are good<\/em>. <\/p>\n

But please do tell me, dear imps … <\/p>\n

What are YOUR<\/font><\/strong> kicks this week? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“…My troll fianc\u00e9e explodes in frustration. MOTL \/ and I take the treasure and get out of there. \/ I’m a king now with three kids and a spaniel. I rule \/ in the daytime,but at night I’m just a dad who puts \/ the kids to bed. …”— From “East of the Sun and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seven-good-things-before-monday","category-young-adult"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}