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If you ask me,
I would have to say
all the world's magic
comes directly from the mouth. (15-18)
-(from the poem "Once Upon a Time,' She Said" by Jane Yolen)
As we grow older and supposedly wiser, most of us put away fairy tales and folklore as if they were merely childish things. But contemporary sages such as Joseph Campbell and Jane Yolen urge us to reclaim our birthright to this deep-rooted genre for our children and ourselves. Far more than fanciful stories to dream on, fairy tales and folklore are the primal language for communicating fundamental beliefs from one generation to the next throughout the centuries.
Dubbed "America's Hans Christian Anderson" by many, Yolen speaks authoritatively about humanity's basic need for fairy tales, fantasy, and folklore, and she contributes voluminously to that body of work. In her 1981 book of essays Touch Magic-Fantasy, Faerie and Folklore in the Literature of Childhood (updated in 2000), Yolen elucidated the vital functions and attributes of fairy tales and lore. Here we explore her haunting, modern-day, holocaust novel Briar Rose (1992), revealing it as the full-bodied incarnation of her insights regarding the elements of a true fairy tale, which she so artfully argued in Touch Magic. (An American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults, Briar Kose was originally published for adults but has become a popular young adult book selection.)
In Briar Rose, a mysterious, fractured account of the Sleeping Beauty tale is entwined with a riveting, classic search for identity amidst the historic horror of a Nazi extermination camp. Fulfilling a deathbed promise, a compassionate young woman embarks on her personal quest to exhume the cryptic past of her beloved, eccentric grandmother who steadfastly clung to the belief that she was the Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, Briar Rose. The story of Becca's search is compelling on its own, and the strangely disturbing fairy tale that her grandmother compulsively recreated-both lovingly and sometimes fiendishly-over the years, informs us that this story is dark and perhaps treacherous. The tale calls Becca (and the reader) to explore its depths and find herself among the shadows. The reader "hears" Gemma's tale in flashbacks, presented in pendulum-like fashion, in alternating chapters of Briar Rose. The story swings back and...