GENRE: Picture book / Fairy Tale
HONORS: None
REVIEW: Melisande's parents are worried about the tendency of fairies to be overlooked at christening parties and thus give terrible gifts so they decide not to have a christening party. Big mistake. The fairies all come anyway and Malevola gives Melisande the gift of baldness. Fortunately, the king has a wish given to him at his wedding that he has never used so he gives it to Melisande when she was grown up. The queen and Melisande, however, did not carefully consider the consequences of their wish and a result Melisande's hair kept growing and growing. Along comes Prince Florizel who is able to stop Melisande's hair from growing but causes Melisande to grow instead. After several more attempts at remedying the unfortunate curse of Malevola, Prince Florizel comes up with a clever solution.
OPINION: I found this book to be very entertaining. I enjoyed the way Nesbit took elements of other fairy tales but worked them in fresh and humorous ways. I found the characters to be a little flat, which is a problem with many fairy tales. Overall, though, this fairy tale was a success.
IDEAS: This book would tie in well with a unit on Fairy Tales. Students could compare and contrast elements of various folktales and the similarities between this folktale and Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, and even Gulliver's Travels. A teacher could also tie in some measuring and graphing with the growth of Melisande and her hair. Finally, a teacher can take about the saying "be careful what you wish for".
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