Belle: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast
By Cameron Dokey Book Review by Miranda Fraser ISBN: 978-1-4814-7966-0 Belle is a short retelling of Beauty and the Beast written from the point of view of Beauty herself. It is a little over 200 pages and can easily be read in one sitting. This is also good for any child that loves to read. Though, I am always hesitant to give a reading age, simply because at 8 I was reading 'White Fang' and 'Black Beauty' with ease. So you'll need to judge by your child's reading abilities at what point you think this book will be good for them, but by the fourth grade I'd say they should be able to read this with ease. Unlike other novels, this one had very little to do with the Beast. The first 100 some pages are all about Beauty and her family. That of course leaves the rest of the fairy tale to be rushed. For someone like me, that's a big disappointment, but I still have to give the novel credit. To begin with, Dokey gave Beauty two older sisters. They were beautiful in an almost night and day sense where Belle found herself to be exceedingly plain and not beautiful at all. The oldest sister having dark hair and blue eyes and the middle sister having golden hair and green eyes. Belle has brown hair, brown eyes, and finds herself to be fine, "In fact, I have a face that is much like the day on which I was born. It contains neither too much of one thing, nor too little of another" (6). The issue of whether she is beautiful or not is so ridiculously over worried that I started to hate the book. I get that looks are important, but from the age of seven on our Beauty is so concerned with her lack of looks and comparing herself to her sisters that she is almost whiny. She even comments on it later saying that it was foolish, but none-the-less there's about a hundred pages of whiny comparisons and complaining about her name. Her father, of course, tells her this is ridiculous and that he sees each of his children as beautiful no matter what, and that maybe one day Belle will see she is beautiful. (Essentially he uses the 'a rose by any other name' mentality to fight her hating her name.) I'd also like to point out that unlike other versions of this story her mother is actually alive throughout the story, so that was definitely different. Aside from that the story is so very much like Robin McKinley's version that I was disappointed. Now, I know Robin McKinley took a lot from the original, it is a retelling after all, but somehow it just lacked a positive view when this novel did it. Essentially, you have two beautiful sisters, a younger sister who sees nothing beautiful about herself and a relatively rich family. When she is in her teens her mother gets angry that she is hiding away and forces her to go to a fancy party. At the party it is discovered that the town believes she is so beautiful that she hides away from everyone's sights. In fact, when she gets ready for the party she argues that her mother only wants her there for contrast so that her sisters look better, but when she sees the dress her mother picks out for her she realizes that in some way her mother thinks she is just as pretty as her sisters. When their family's riches go down the drain and they move to the country all the sisters get to know who they are a little better and form a close relationship because suddenly their looks no longer matter. *eye roll* It should also have been mentioned by now that Belle has a special ability to carve wood. Unlike most novels where she is a bookworm this Belle is a carpenter and has the ability to hold a piece of wood and know in her heart what it wishes to be carved into. A unique take that I rather enjoyed. On the way to the country she hears a legend about the woods. It was about a couple's love being so strong in life and death that where they are buried a special tree, called the Heart Tree grows. If the tree finds you worthy it will drop a branch for you to discover what true love looks like. Of course massive foreshadowing is happening here. When her father goes on a business trip he gets lost in the woods and ends up at the Beast's castle. Instead of the rose, surprise, surprise, the Father comes across the heart tree and a branch drops to his feet clearly intended for Belle. The Beast decides that the daughter it is intended for must come to him in a weeks time because she will be able to show him true love's face, when he himself has never seen it. That's where things get interesting, and of course shoved into the last few chapters. Instead of a nightly proposal he asks her every night to look into his face until the count of five. Every night she tells him no and worries over why she cannot seem to find what lies within the heart tree branch. In place of the mirror, an element we know so well, the lake the heart tree grows by is the mirror. The Beast tells her to look into the lake and it will show her what her heart desires. Of course he sets her free, because he loves her, and when she comes to realize it is love that set her free she quickly returns to him. In the end, this book was different. As I said, it deserves some praise, but it is not one of my favorites by any means. I feel like the heart tree and some of the aspects of the Beast's curse were very original and could have been a very great story. I also felt that the final lesson, that beauty is in the heart not the outer appearance, was well thought out. "For what love truly is, where it truly resides, is in a place that none of us can see" (192). I recommend reading it for yourself and seeing what you think. You may love this retelling and that's okay, that's the wonder of books. Author's links
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