Fairest Of All

This post originally published June 14, 2010.

Author: Serena Valentino
Published: 2009
Publisher: Disney Press
250 pages (hardcover)
 
Summary: Everybody knows the story of Snow White, and how her wicked stepmother, the Queen, tried to have Snow White killed out of jealousy of her beauty. But nobody knows how or why the Queen became so wicked, how she became obsessed with being the fairest one of all. Nobody knows how she came to own a magic mirror and nobody knows how she came to become an enchantress. The truth is, the Queen started out as an ordinary person like anyone else — in fact, she was an adoring and doting mother to little Snow White. It was through a series of unfortunate events and tragedies that led the Queen to become the person she was known to be.

My Thoughts: I bought this book in Disneyland and read it on my flight back home. It may be 250 pages, but it’s a small book with large font, so I think if this was in ‘regular book’ size and form, it’d be an 80 page book. It’s geared towards children, nine years and older (around that age, probably) but as always, I believe there’s no reason a children’s book can’t appeal to an adult too. As a huge Disney fan, I knew I wanted to read this book right away when I spotted it.

This book is based off of Disney’s Snow White, so all the characters and objects in the story are exactly the same as they are from the movie, which was really cool because I am a huge fan of Disney classics. The story is really interesting, particularly because (assuming you know the story of Snow White) you know what happens at the very end, and you know the Queen will eventually become evil. What you don’t know is when and how, and that is what kept me reading. The Queen starts off as such a good person in this story, it’s hard to imagine why she would ever become evil and wicked, so that kept me turning the pages.

While I personally found the writing style quite simplistic and basic (I kept reminding myself this is a children’s book, don’t expect too many ‘big words’ to appear) as well as the story, it is really quite cute and adds a whole new level of understanding to the original Snow White movie.

My Rating: 3/5