Overview

In a faraway land, a princess named Aurora lives in a castle, honing her enchantments amid a slumbering kingdom! When the princess was just a baby, a wicked fairy cursed the realm with unending sleep. But a kind fairy had her own spell to cast--she saved the newborn and granted the girl the gift of magic! Now, Aurora is the only one who can awaken her subjects by concocting a potion made up of the world's rarest ingredients. Faced with strange places and fantastical creatures, can Aurora succeed in her epic quest, or will the kingdom--and she--be doomed to doze forever?

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9781496537843

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These graphic novels are designed very well for newer or struggling readers. The action-packed plots and the brevity of the stories (33 pages) are perfect for this group. . . . The scaffolding provided by the original fairy tales lets the reader know the basic story arcs and objectives...but the changes in characters' physical features, adjustments to some plot points, and modernized dialogue all heighten interest for elementary-aged readers. . . .readers who like quick reads and are intimidated by longer books and unfamiliar vocabulary will love them. Fans of Art Baltazar's Tiny Titans books who are willing to move outside the superhero realm should try the Far Out Fairy Tales series.-- No Flying, No Tights

In the zombified version, Hansel and Gretel and their parents are zombies who live in a Disney-esque enchanted forest and live on the brains of unsuspecting tourists. They are starving because the tourist trade is drying up, but rather than abandon their children, they dress them as cute human children so they can lure in some good Samaritans and turn them into dinner. The witch does capture them and fatten up Hansel while making Gretel do all the work, but Gretel doesn't roast her in the oven--she bites the witch and turns her into a zombie. The story ends happily with all the characters living companionably together and munching on the vegetarian brains that the witch obtains by mail order. The story of the three bears has only a tenuous connection with the original, as it features a young archaeologist investigating the tomb of King Arthur--and encountering only the king but also Queen Elizabeth I and Robin Hood, all transformed into vampires and looking at her like a delicious snack. This one features plenty of Lara Craft-esque maneuvers, as Goldilocks faces a series of booby traps and defends herself against both the vampires and a horde of spiders through the clever use of her smart phone. In Sleeping Beauty: Magic Master, the Princess Aurora doesn't wait around for a prince to wake her up. In fact, the opposite happens: She rescues a prince. When Aurora is born, the bad fairy puts a curse on her, as in the original, but the good fairy gives her the gift of magic. The bad fairy put the rest of the kingdom to sleep, but Aurora has until her 13th birthday to learn all of magic and gather the ingredients for a magic potion that will break the spell. In her last-minute dash to get the final ingredients, she befriends a yeti who helps her out, and once the spell is broken, he turns out to be a handsome prince. Jak and the Magic Nano-Beans, a sci-fi take on Jack and the Beanstalk, is the edgiest of these books, if any Capstone book could be said to be edgy. Jak is a rebellious teenage girl with a blue Mohawk. The beanstalk is replaced by a space elevator, which all the affluent people in her society used to escape from earth, leaving a bleak landscape inhabited by people who apparently have no skills, as all the technology is starting to fall apart. Jak's mother sits around all day drinking soda and surfing the internet, and she wants Jak to sell her best friend, a robot named Cow, for scrap. But the junkman has a better idea: He gives Jak a tube of nano-bots who repair Cow; then he sends her up to the space station at the top of the elevator in search of more. When they reach the space station, Jak and Cow find plenty of nano-bots all right, but they also encounter a giant space octopus that's trying to gobble them all up. In this story, technology (the nano-bots) replaces both the magic beans and the gold that the original Jack brought back home. It's an interesting point for discussion. . . . The art in all these books is outstanding. Jak and Sleeping Beauty showing a lot of manga influence in the character designs, and all four have a contemporary look that sets them apart from the usual Disney-esque fairy tale books. The artists make good use of the elements of comics, using paneling, sound effects, and different shapes and colors of word balloons to tell the story. The visual questions in the back of the books point out some of these elements, which makes the books good tools for learning the skills required to read graphic novels. While the stories are a far cry from the traditional versions, the books are entertaining in their own right, with diverse casts of characters, girls who make their own adventures, and plenty of goofy, supernatural fun.--Brigid Alverson SLJ's Good Comics for Kids These graphic novels are designed very well for newer or struggling readers. The action-packed plots and the brevity of the stories (33 pages) are perfect for this group. . . . The scaffolding provided by the original fairy tales lets the reader know the basic story arcs and objectives...but the changes in characters' physical features, adjustments to some plot points, and modernized dialogue all heighten interest for elementary-aged readers. . . .readers who like quick reads and are intimidated by longer books and unfamiliar vocabulary will love them. Fans of Art Baltazar's Tiny Titans books who are willing to move outside the superhero realm should try the Far Out Fairy Tales series.-- No Flying, No Tights

Author Information

Alex Lopez is from Sabadell, Spain. He became a professional illustrator and comic-book artist in 2001, but he's been drawing ever since he can remember. Lopez's pieces have been published in many countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, Belgium, and Turkey. He's also worked on a variety of projects from illustrated books to video games to marketing pieces. Stephanie True Peters has been writing books for young readers for more than 25 years. Among her most recent titles are Sleeping Beauty: Magic Master and Johnny Slimeseed, both for Capstone's Far-Out Fairy Tale/Folk Tale series. An avid reader, workout enthusiast, and beach wanderer, Stephanie enjoys spending time with her children, Jackson and Chloe, her husband Dan, and the family's two cats and two rabbits. She lives and works in Mansfield, Massachusetts, Stephanie True Peters has been writing books for young readers for more than 25 years. Among her most recent titles are Sleeping Beauty: Magic Master and Johnny Slimeseed, both for Capstone's Far-Out Fairy Tale/Folk Tale series. An avid reader, workout enthusiast, and beach wanderer, Stephanie enjoys spending time with her children, Jackson and Chloe, her husband Dan, and the family's two cats and two rabbits. She lives and works in Mansfield, Massachusetts.

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