Beanstalker and Other Hilarious Scarytales - Kiersten White [Review]

Title: Beanstalker and Other Hilarious Scarytales

Author: Kiersten White

Genre: Middle grade, Fantasy, Humor

Publisher: Scholastic

Publishing date: July 25th 2017

Pages: 224

Rating

★★★☆☆

Hello! Today I’m reviewing a middle grade book I read last year (I’m really behind schedule with my reviews TTwTT).

Beanstalker and Other Hilarious Scarytales is a humorous retelling of popular fairytales, the

Kiersten White.

first middle grade book written by Kiersten White. It mashes several fairytales with an unexpected and dark twist, but if I had to say the plot I would say it is about a step mother, who seems to be the step mother of half kingdom, this stepmother is not bad, she tries to help her stepchildren, but they are all a bunch of weirdos that do crazy stuff and are constantly in trouble.

The tales in this book are mainly Snow White, Jack and the beanstalk, red riding hood, the princes and the pea, Goldilocks, Cinderella, and Rapunzel.

The book is physically beautiful, the hardback is green and the book has really lovely illustrations to accompany the story. I’ve had the chance of meeting Kiersten White and I could clearly hear her voice in my head while reading this, she is a really funny person during events, and her particular sense of humor is present all the time in this book.

The book is divided by the “retelling” in turn, but all stories are connected, so it’s a full story.

The beginning was a bit slow, and the book is full of word plays I think would be really hard to translate in other languages because those word plays are important for the story.

The twists of the fairytales were really unexpected and unconventional, adding zombies and vampires in the mix.

This is a fun light read, but I think it’s one of those middle grade books that are perfect for the targeted audience, but may seem not so funny for grown-ups.