Sunday, January 02, 2005
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
Briar Rose is a powerful and brilliant telling of a largely ignored part of the holocaust using the fairy tale of Briar Rose/Sleeping Beauty.
Becca is a journalist who fights to find truth and make differences in her stories. She has always loved her Grandmother Gemma's story of Briar Rose featuring Gemma as the princess. As Gemma is dying she begs Becca to find the truth of her story. In a carved wooden box Becca finds a mishmash of photos, newspaper clippings, and documents that lead her into the depths of a story that is true and not true at the same time. Interspersed throughout Becca's search are snippets from the different ways that Gemma told the story; each telling reveals more of the true fairy tale.
This is definitely a story for older children and adults. An adult who knows the child well would do well to read Briar Rose before reading it with or recommending to the child.
Becca is a journalist who fights to find truth and make differences in her stories. She has always loved her Grandmother Gemma's story of Briar Rose featuring Gemma as the princess. As Gemma is dying she begs Becca to find the truth of her story. In a carved wooden box Becca finds a mishmash of photos, newspaper clippings, and documents that lead her into the depths of a story that is true and not true at the same time. Interspersed throughout Becca's search are snippets from the different ways that Gemma told the story; each telling reveals more of the true fairy tale.
This is definitely a story for older children and adults. An adult who knows the child well would do well to read Briar Rose before reading it with or recommending to the child.
# posted by JJ @ 7:49 PM 
