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Black Pearls: A Faerie Strand | 
 enlarge | Author: Louise Hawes
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy New: $7.98
You Save: $8.02 (50%)
New (27) Used (6) from $7.98
Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 510452
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 6.3 x 1
ISBN: 0618747974
EAN: 9780618747979
ASIN: 0618747974
Publication Date: May 19, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: First edition, first printing hardback. Book and dj like new, no markings.
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Product Description
" . . . and they lived happily ever after."
Remember the fairy tales you put away after you found that no princess is as beautiful as common sense and happy endings are just the beginning?
Well, the old tales are back, and they've grown up! Black Pearls brings you the stories of your childhood, told in a way you've never heard before. Instead of lulling you to sleep, they'll wake you up?to the haunting sadness that waits just inside the windows of a gingerbread cottage, the passion that fuels a witch's flight, and the heartache that comes, again and again, at the stroke of midnight.
Make no mistake: these stories are as dark as human nature itself. But they shine, too, lit with the fire of our dreams and our hunger for magic.
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| Customer Reviews:
Perfect Title for Story Gems May 31, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The intriguing title is perfect for this collection of "twisted" fairy tales. (The lustrous pearl, once considered the "Queen of Gemstones," was valued above the lives of enslaved divers - men whose lifespans were cut short by the dangers of the dive.) In this story collection, Hawes transforms seven fairy tales with her magical pen: Rapunzel; The Pied Piper; Hansel and Gretel; Cinderella; Jack and the Beanstalk; Snow White; Lady Godiva.
The reader enters the backdoor of the moldering palaces of our childhood, drawn by Hawes's evocative wording and dream-inspired characters. Behind overgrown hedges of blood-red blossoms and menacing thorns, we find complicated emotions - forbidden love, desperate longing, suicidal despair, wrenching guilt.
The richly-detailed, black-and-white illustrations are a fine complement to the luscious wording. This short story collection would be a fine addition to a classroom library for teens. It would make a splendid gift for an imaginative teen reader/writer. Leave an extra copy on the night-table of your guest bedroom.
Rare and Powerful Stories May 23, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Lush, Buoyant, Terrifying, and Heartbreaking. What Hawes has accomplished with her new collection of stories, Black Pearls: A Faerie Strand, is nothing short of Brilliant! This is not just a retelling of the oldest and most cherished fairy tales you heard as a child, but a bold and breathtaking re-envisioning of such memorable stories as the Pied Piper, and Hansel and Gretel. Through Hawes' powerful imagination and stunning prose, these stories have "grown up," infused with a mature and wondrous new charm.
At first glance you won't recognize the names of the stories in the Table of Contents; Hawes has chosen to rename her tales. But for those of you intimately familiar with these unforgettable classics, you will not be far into Hawes' first story, "Dame Nigran's Tower," before you recognize the theme of Rapunzel. But what's different is that Hawes has chosen to tell the story from the witch's point of view, and not the horrible witch from the original tale who was so easy to hate and fear with her warts and pointy nose and bony hands, but a beautiful witch who risks her magical ability to fly for a chance to experience the power of human love. These are compassionate, sophisticated stories that will hold you spellbound for hours, long after you've put the book down.
But be warned: not everyone in these stories lives happily ever after. Through the vehicle of these re-imagined tales, Hawes' artfully exposes human nature in all its forms--at once raw and devastating, then beautiful and courageous--unwilling to take false paths for happier solutions. Hawes stays true to the story she's fashioned, committed to the characters she's shaped, faithfully following them through the dismal, dank forest if that's where they lead. But even at their darkest, these stories manage to lift you up with their boundless energy and daring, their genius and empathy, their unwavering heart and soul.
Hawes is known for her virtuosic writing and her ease of transitioning between genres, producing YA Novels, Middle Grade Novels and Picture Books, and several short fiction collections. Her work has garnered awards from the Children's Book Council, the Young Adult Library Services Association, the Center for Children's Books, the New York Public Library, and the International Reading Association. It is due to her amazing command of language and literary genius that Hawes is able to imbue these mature stories with fairy tale magic. Through the enchantment of Hawes' magnificent prose, I was transported back in time, not to my own childhood, but a realm where time has never existed, and yet, in terms of human spirit, not so different from today.
The Compulsive Reader's Reviews May 10, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Have you ever longed for a fairy tale that wasn't riddled with silliness and foolish princesses and princes? Or one that held greater meaning and depth than those tales your mother told you when you were a child? Black Pearls is what you have been looking for. These seven tales are far different than those that you remember hearing, but eerily similar at the same time. Why was Rapunzel kept in that tower? Did Hansel and Gretel really make it out of that gingerbread house alive? What was the real purpose behind Lady Godiva's shocking ride? You'll learn the secrets, and much more, in this book.
Black Pearls is spellbinding. Each and every wonderfully crafted story is stunning, and just as enrapturing, inviting, and exquisite as the next. This sophisticated collection reveals the complexity and deeper nature of each tale, and will especially appeal to those who ever wondered about the practicalities of each classic story. Anyone who has out-grown the childish fancies that fairy tales are notorious for, but not the tales themselves, will fall in love with this book, and the more mature content will add to its appeal. Hawes has a way of highlighting the intricacies of human emotions and relationships, making Black Pearls a bold, brilliant read.
http://thecompulsivereader.blogspot.com/
Courtesy of Teens Read Too May 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In this mesmerizing book, seven classic fairy tales have been retold; presented in a mature, yet still very magical, way.
Learn the truth behind Rapunzel's imprisonment, and what really happened to Hansel and Gretal in the candied house in the woods. You'll discover what happened to the children the Pied Piper stole away, and how Cinderella and her prince lived after "Happily Ever After." Find out why the harp wanted to stay with her monstrous giant of a master rather than go with Jack, and how the Seven Dwarves fared after Snow White left to be with her prince. And, most intriguing of all, you'll learn the true reason behind Lady Godiva's legendary ride.
So immerse yourself in this wonderfully written collection of some of the best known tales of all time and their wonderfully human characters, who are passionate, fallible, and not all as they seem. They are different, a bit more true to life, and better suited for the more mature and thoughtful reader, but won't fail to evoke the same feelings they did when you heard first heard them as a child.
Stirring, sad, triumphant, and poignant, you'll devour each and every artfully portrayed tale.
Reviewed by: The Compulsive Reader
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