"Beauty loved him more than anything, her Beast boy, but, secretly, sometimes, she wished that he would have remained a Beast." Traditional meets post-modern as Francesca Lia Block offers up poetic, dreamlike retellings of nine well-known stories, from Snow White to Thumbelina.

Teller is his name, the German word for plate. And what does he serve up? The truth, as he is told it. Teller is a would-be newspaperman - until an unwise story about the Emperor's taste in clothing lands him in serious trouble. Teller decides that fiction holds its own truth, and begins rewriting familiar tales with a new spin...

"Sometimes people think they know a story, but they never know the whole of it." Priscilla Galloway's take on such favourites as Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, and the Little Mermaid definitely tends toward the darker side of the imagination. Had enough sweetness and light? Here are eight distorted and disturbing fairy tales, just for you.

Red Riding Hood was about to be devoured by the wolf. "Her screams were heard by a passing wood-chopper person (or log-fuel technician, as he preferred to be called). When he burst into the cottage, he saw the melee and tried to intervene. But as he raised his ax, Red Riding Hood and the Wolf both stopped. 'And just what do you think you're doing?' asked Red Riding Hood." So begins a collection of fairy tales, rewritten in language that will not offend our ears in this sensitive new-age era. The results are ridiculous. Enjoy! If this brief taste is not enough for you, try Once Upon a More Enlightened Time: More Politically Correct Bedtime Stories.

This first installment in a trio of tales puts an intriguing spin on Rapunzel, setting the story in a girl's boarding school in 1950's England. The author must do some serious twisting to fit the traditional elements of the story into a realistic setting, making this a funny and fascinating read. Don't miss the further adventures of Rapunzel's best friends and fellow schoolgirls, Sleeping Beauty (in Watching the Roses) and Snow White (in Pictures of the Night).

Princess Anidori-Keladra Talianna Isilee has never quite fit in. She does not have her mother's unquestioned air of command, only a resolute sense of duty. When she is robbed of her own country's crown and sent as a peace offering to a foreign prince, she goes with a heavy heart. But when she is betrayed, and even her name taken from her, Ani must decide for the first time who she is and how far she will go to fulfill her destiny. This is a beautifully rendered version of the Grimms' classic tale of heartache, betrayal and justice hard-won. Readers won't want to miss the other stories from this magical landscape, Enna Burning and River Secrets.

"The young prince peered intently into a deep furrow the farmers had dug into the ebony earth, dazed by what he saw. A graceful limb protruded from the ground. An arm. A delicate hand, its fingers curled into a voluptuous gesture, as if to beckon him." When Prince Rama investigates this mystery he falls into an enchanted sleep, from which only love can waken him... So begins a story of adventure and enchantment, based on the Ramayana, an epic tale from India and Southeast Asia.

A man who is half dragon seeks a woman with courage enough to be his bride; a young woman doomed to spend her life as a snake searches the land of dreams for a knight who can set her free; a beautiful girl plagued by a horde of suitors tries to free her father's kingdom of this blight. These are just a few of the wondrous and often comic tales of transformation, witchcraft, love and heroism taken from medieval Danish ballads. This is storytelling at its best.

Corbett Lynn is cursed. Or so they say. He has returned to claim his inheritance - a ruined hall on a wild plot of land. Rois, who looks nothing like a rose, loves him instantly and completely. His feelings are not so clear... This curiously tangled and intricate reworking of the tale of Tam Lin is an enduring story of love, mystery and sacrifice. By the author of The Forgotten Beasts of Eld.

Her real name is Honour. But when her father tried to explain what the name meant, his five-year-old only huffed and said, "I'd rather be Beauty." The nickname stuck, but our heroine is a match for both of her names. If you ever wanted to know more about Beauty - and the Beast - this is your story. Robin McKinley deftly weaves a novel from the threads of the traditional tale.

The princess Lissar is the image of her beautiful mother. But her beauty is a curse that sends her running from her home, hiding from the world and her own identity. A brilliant and haunting novelization of a Charles Perrault fairy tale, Donkey Skin, often omitted from collections because of its disturbing content.

Donna Jo Napoli has worked the thread of “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” into a dark medieval tapestry of disease, poverty, jealousy and superstition. Through the eyes of Salz, a young boy cursed and isolated by asthma, we witness a possible explanation for the terrible events that overtook "Hamelin" in the late 14th century. In a departure from her previous intense and personal examinations of particular fairy tale characters, Napoli here exposes the character of a fearful, superstitious and brutal society as a whole.

What drove the wicked witch in Hansel and Gretel to devour small children? Could you possibly find sympathy in your heart for her? Donna Jo Napoli delves into the tortured mind of this hated hag of folklore to find a lost and lonely soul.

Can anyone be loved too much? When Zel's heart reaches for a young nobleman, her mother makes her a prisoner rather than lose the only thing she loves. This lyrical rendition of Rapunzel is a tale of love, loss, betrayal and faithfulness. Each of the three players - Zel, her lover, and her mother - tells his own story in this dark romance.

In a sparkling novelization of the Norwegian folktale "East of the Sun, West of the Moon", young Rose is sent to live a strange life in the castle of the White Bear. It is a magical and mysterious existence, isolated and yet strangely fulfilling. Edith Pattou uses a revolving narrative that offers the first-person perspective of many characters: Rose, her father, the White Bear - and the Snow Queen. Like the characters in the tale, readers will be spellbound. Edith Pattou is also the author of Hero's Song and Fire Arrow.

"In a place far distant from where you are now grows an oak tree by a lake. Round the oak's trunk is a chain of golden links. Tethered to the chain is a learned cat, and this most learned of all cats walks round and round the tree continually. As it walks one way, it sings songs. As it walks the other, it tells stories. This is one of the stories the cat tells." It is the tale of a mad Czar who has imprisoned his son, of the Czar's sister, who plots to take power for herself, and of Chingis, the witch-girl, who holds all their fortunes in her hands. Susan Price draws many elements from Russian folklore to create a world steeped in the magic of deep winter. The spirit world meets Czarist Russia again in Ghost Song and Ghost Dance: The Czar's Black Angel.

What if Red Riding Hood was really a spoiled brat whose visits filled her poor grandmother with dread? What if Jack's adventures with the beanstalk were only the drunken ravings of the laziest fool who ever walked the earth? What if Hansel and Gretel weren't really so innocent? Vivian Vande Velde applies her trademark blend of imagination and sly humour to this short sharp collection of thirteen fractured fairy tales.

Why did Rumplestiltskin want a child? Why did the Miller's daughter want to marry a man willing to put her to death if she couldn't perform miracles? Vivian Vande Velde provides six intriguing alternative versions of this well-known fairy tale.

"Once upon a time... which is all times and no times but not the very best of times..." A grandmother tells a story to her three granddaughters, the story of Sleeping Beauty - or Briar Rose. But somehow her story is tangled with her own memories, now sharp, now dreamlike, memories of the Holocaust. The Briar Rose, she insists, is herself. When the old lady dies, her grandchildren discover that they know nothing of her past, not even her real name. The others are prepared to leave it alone and forget, but Becca, the youngest granddaughter, is a journalist. Stories are her life. She feels compelled to discover the truth of her grandmother's tale...