Snoring Beauty is a modern fantasy story that is very similar to the fairy tale story of Sleeping Beauty. While reading, we encounter fairies, a cruel curse and a princess enchanted by a spell. It is a story about a royal family that just gave birth to a new princess. They invited fairies who gave their little girl different powers and gifts. There was one cranky fairy who said when the princess turns 16, she will be run over by a pie wagon and die! Then another fairy “bamboozled” this gift and said she will be a sleeping dragon and one day she’ll be awakened by a prince. Years passed and when she turned 16, a woman turned up at the castle with a pie. Sure enough, the wagon kept rolling and eventually ran over the princess. She turned into a dragon that snored and stayed like that for a long time and was to remain like that until the spell was broken. I thought Snoring Beauty was a very unique way of using modern fantasy to retell a fairytale. In my opinion, the illustrations were good, they caught my attention and were very solid. They told the same story as the words but also had extra things. I had to reread the story to figure out what a frog was doing in the images, but I soon realized he was the one telling the story so I thought that was very unique. This story didn’t have much of a moral but it was rather for entertainment. I think children would really enjoy reading it. Snoring Beauty, written by Bruce Hale and illustrated by Howard Fine, is a lovely retelling of Sleeping Beauty, complete with a princess turned into a hot pink and purple dragon and a garlic smelling fairy sent to make sure the princess doesn't ever get her prince. Beginning just as the traditional fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty does, Snoring Beauty features a royal family that has a baby and throws a party for blessing her. Instead of witch crashing the party however, we find Beebo, the garlic smelling fairy, that proceeds to place a curse on the child. Wanting a good life for his baby girl, the King asks a good fairy to place a different type of curse on her, turning her into a sleeping, very loudly snoring, dragon on her sixteenth birthday. She does indeed turn into a dragon on her birthday, a beautiful hot pink and purple dragon. Unfortunately, everyone in the town is forced to deal with her terrible snoring, resulting in the king making a proclamation to the town. The one man that can break the curse on his daughter and awaken her, will receive her hand in marriage. And on and on the story goes. It's really a very cute retelling of Sleeping Beauty, and the illustrations are just fantastic. This would be a great home read aloud (a bit long for story times) and would be perfect for a unit on fairy tale retellings. The vocabulary and subtle remarks make it fun for the adult reader as well. The artwork draws the eye to such elaborate, joyful characters. I would recommend this story to any young child who enjoys fairy tells.
What do You think about Snoring Beauty (2008)?
A clever picture book -- my 7-10 year-olds loved it at storytime!
—diana
Retelling of Sleeping Beauty, but it just didn't do it for me.
—Cat
The kids really loved this one, which moved it to a 4 star.
—tammy21
Clever version of the old favorite Sleeping beauty.
—tushar
