Wicked (and others)

Of course by now Wicked is a household name due mostly to the Broadway musical. But as in movies of books - the Broadway play, as amazing and captivating as it is, is just a small piece of what is actually covered in the book. Gregory Maguire is a modern day Grimm's Brother. He is an expert at taking all too familiar stories and giving them a twist here and a stretch there creating something entirely unique and original.

Since Wicked rose to such high acclaim, a sequel, Son of A Witch, was born. And now the third installment of what is now called the Wicked Years Series, A Lion Among Men, has come out. Will each of the other characters get their say too? I sure hope so. Not only are these books fun to read but they are very intelligent reads. Many fairy tales have underlying messages and Maguire's books have political, social, and economic stories underneath the talking animals and witches. (Hey - it worked for Orwell with Animal Farm!)

If you are like me, you become attached to good writers and want to read everything they have written. Maguire has more than the tales of Oz out there. So if you loved Wicked - peruse the rest of his novels.

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is a reworking of Cinderella through her stepsister. As in Wicked, where we learn how Elphaba became the Wicked Witch of the West, in Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister we see the reasons why Cinderella's stepsisters & stepmother are so mean & ugly toward her. There is always more than one side to every story. Maybe we judged them too harshly.

Mirror, Mirror is Maguire's retelling of Snow White. Rather than just your garden variety evil witch, Maguire decides to include the Borgias as the evil in the story. And there are no Disney dwarfs in this story! It's a quick read that pulls in some history of Tuscany in the 16th century. Just don't expect it to be like Snow White at all.

What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy is another short novel by Maguire. It's part children's book, part adult book, but completely unique. It's actually a story inside a story. The book is narrated by Gage, an English teacher who is telling the story of What-the-Dickens to his cousins during a storm. What-the-Dickens is a skibberee, or as we call them - a tooth fairy. He soon finds others like himself in colonies hidden from human sight. There are even wars between opposing colonies of these tooth fairies. I liked this book, not only because it was a quick read, but because it gave an answer to the question I've always wondered: What does the tooth fairy do with all those teeth??

So, in this Christmas season, if you have friends who like fairy tales and fantasy, pick up any of Gregory Maguire's books. The short skip away from reality is a fun trip with any of these novels.