The Sister Who Ate Her Brothers

This book contains retellings of traditional fairy tales from many countries including Korea, Japan, China, Ireland, South Africa and India. The book’s most striking features are its lavish presentation and full colour illustrations, which might give a reader the impression that it is aimed at a younger and less literate readership. In fact the book fully deserves classification for older readers. It contains instances of cannibalism and of children murdering their parents, as well as of the theft of human organs.

The author tells us that she herself is missing some fingers. Perhaps as a result of her own experience she employs the fairy tale trope of disfigurement. Unusually perhaps the particular physical attributes do not distinguish the sinister or evil characters. One of the author’s princesses is hairless. The book also experiments significantly with the gender roles of its characters.

It is easy to imagine this book being employed in secondary classrooms alongside more conventional versions of classic fairy tales.