0 Review: "The Rabbit Back Literature Society" by Caitlin Postal

"The Rabbit Back Literature Society"

Review by Caitlin Postal

Editor's Note: This is one of those books I dearly wished I'd had time to review personally, with the use of folklore motifs and fairy tale-like echoes in the characters. Fortunately, partnering with Timeless Tales Magazine means we're able to begin building a "review posse" so Once Upon A Blog can post book reviews far more regularly (and Timeless Tales Magazine's Editor in Chief can get to know some new writers as well). Today, Caitlin gives you a glimpse as to why you might just be intrigued by The Rabbit Back Literature  Society too.

Jacket description: 

Only nine people have ever been chosen by renowned children’s author Laura White to join the Rabbit Back Literature Society, an elite group of writers in the small town of Rabbit Back. Now a tenth member has been selected: a young literature teacher named Ella.  

Soon Ella discovers that the Society is not what it seems. What is its mysterious ritual known as "The Game"? What explains the strange disappearance that occurs at Laura White’s winter party? Why are the words inside books starting to rearrange themselves? Was there once another tenth member, before her? Slowly, as Ella explores the Society and its history, disturbing secrets that had been buried for years start to come to light. . . .

To put it simply, The Rabbit Back Literature Society is not a fairy tale, nor does it claim to be. Instead, author Pasi Ilmari Jaaskelainen serves up an intriguing mystery woven with elements of folklore, which make the reader just as contemplative as the protagonist, Ella Milana.

The tale begins in the small town of Rabbit Back, best known for its renowned author Laura White and the nine students she hand selects to groom into writers. When Ella becomes the Society’s tenth member, she finds herself drawn into a fantastical conspiracy shared only by the nine other members.

Upon Ella's induction to the Rabbit Back Literature Society, however, Laura White disappears into thin air, like an enigmatic Snow Queen, leaving only flurries of snow behind. Willing search parties cannot find her and they refuse to venture into the forest. It's nearly impossible to discuss the folklore elements of this novel without spoilers, but suffice it to say, things are not what they seem. At first, I saw Laura White as an eccentric benefactor but I couldn't have anticipated the truth.

Many folktales use the wild mysterious forest as a contrast to the safety of town life. But this novel subverts that trope. Jaaskelainen’s woods are certainly mystical, but the town is also inexplicably touched by magic. From the garden gnomes in Ella’s front yard to the wild dogs who patrol, Rabbit Back is not a normal town. What has returned to Martti Winter's garden? Why is Ingrid Katz burning books? How did Laura White disappear? What happened to the Society’s first tenth member?

What the forest takes, it doesn't give back and Ella comes to realize that "Under one reality there's always another. And another one under that." And so the reader is drawn into teasing out the mystery, just like Ella herself.

The Rabbit Back Literature Society’s patented small town charm has a deliciously sinister undertone, thanks to the shadowy presence of the woods. For readers looking to add a touch of the Fae to their cozy mystery collection, this novel is sure to be a hit.

Disclosure: A complimentary copy of the book was provided by Thomas Dunne Books in exchange for an honest review.

Caitlin Postal is a marketing specialist who loves literature, history, and pop culture. When not writing, she can be found sewing costumes and donning medieval armor. You can find her on twitter: https://twitter.com/goingpostale.

Detail: Review: "The Rabbit Back Literature Society" by Caitlin Postal

0 School Transformed into Snow Queen Scenes - Kids' Grades Soar in Response

From The Snow Queen illustrated by Vadislav Erko - note all the tools of learning in this illustration

Wow. I wish kidshad the opportunity to learn like this! There's not a whole lot of information about this event, other than a very short piece in a local paper but it's a fantastic example of immersive learning and teaching through the arts and fairy tales to foster excellence in students.

The whole idea of using the setting to immerse student senses and live storytelling is to engender learning of often-challenging subjects for kids. And it works. It really, really works!

Here's the short report:

SCENES from Hans Christian Andersen's Snow Queen turned St Mary's Church of England Primary in Stansted into a fairy-tale world. 

Pupils felt like they were stepping into a storybook after staff gave the primary a revamp during a (pupil free) day. 

It set the backdrop as children started a two-week project basing all their literacy and artwork on different versions of the much-loved story. 

They were treated to a performance of the play by Quantum Theater, paid for by the school's PTFA. 

"Seeing the school transformed was a wonderful surprise and caused great excitement," said Kate Maginn, English co-ordinator. "All the children produced quality pieces of writing and art, whatever their age."

(Source HERE)

Congratulations to the caring and motivated parents and teachers who worked so hard on their pupil free day, made this happen and brought Quantum Theater into the school to bring the story to life to boot!

Not coincidentally, this type of education is exactly what Quantum Theater is all about. They're specifically set up to amp education via stories, fairy tales and theater. The idea is to help kids learn the basics, like reading, writing and maths, to enjoy the process and to get excited about learning even more. It's such a brilliant program. If I were wealthy I'd make a point of expanding their company so they can reach more kids.Here's more from the "About Us" section of Quantum Theater's website (we need these guys overplease!):

Quantum Theatre for Science was founded in 1988 as a direct response to the lack of educational drama available to schools on the subject of numeracy and science. Over twenty years on, nearly three thousand schools each year see Quantum performances, using them to introduce or re-enforce these topics, making Quantum Britain's foremost science and numeracy-based theatre-in-education company.

Our customers have come to rely on Quantum's characteristic style; educational elements combined with pacey, humorous musical theatre. Our aim is to make the world of science and numeracy accessible and relevant to children's everyday experiences by bringing it "to life."                     If you're wondering "Why Snow Queen?", there's a lot to work with in the story, with everything from each season getting a showcase through to the idea of puzzles, math and logic (not to mention writing on a fish!). I don't know how the play was written for the show to be specifically focused on reading and writing and more but whatever they're doing, it clearly worked. Works. They're still touring around other (lucky) schools. Could Quantum Theater (and the happy teachers and parents at St. Mary's Primary) please come have a chat with my son's school, so the kidscan also learn this way? I'm lucky if I get to do a proper storytelling for our kiddos, let alone transform the school for a unit! Note: photos are from St. Mary's Primary and from the Snow Queen production by Quantum Theater (found on their Twitter account). *We did a little of this in the Children's Theater I worked with but not to the extent of working with the education system directly. We would try to incorporate learning principles ourselves but it's so much more effective if teachers, parents and guests are working together!

Detail: School Transformed into Snow Queen Scenes - Kids' Grades Soar in Response

0 Eternity...

I didn't know this existed until recently but it was most definitely inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen. It even comes with the quote attached. (Looks really closely at the teeny letters below the shapes in the tray. I've kept the image as big as possible so it will spill over into the sidebar, but you can read it...)

It would make for an interesting gift for a friend, don't you think? I mean, would you be saying "I'll love you for Eternity" or "you're a puzzle I will never put together"? ;)

The creator is Artemy Lebedev and should still be available for purchase.

He arranged his pieces to spell out many words; but he could never find
the way to make the one word he was so eager to form.
The word was “Eternity.”
The Snow Queen had said to him,
“If you can puzzle that out you shall be your own master,
and I’ll give you the whole world and a new pair of skates.”

Detail: Eternity...

0 Emily Blunt To Become (Villainous) "Snow Queen"?

Do you remember all the talks about Snow White and the Huntsman getting a sequel, but that there would be no Snow White.. etc etc? Well there have been other developments in the past couple of days, one in particular I didn't expect at all.

Emily Blunt, the amazing actress who played The Baker's Wife in Into The Woods, is looking to get involved in another fairy tale franchise (or two - more on that later*) and is officially "in talks" (negotiating a possible contract) to play the villain in the new movie The Huntsman (previously known as Snow White and the Huntsman 2). It's a character we already know and have seen a few different version of recently, both nice and not-so-nice. I have a feeling Ms. Blunt would have no trouble in making us shiver.

The sequel sends the Huntsman on a quest to find the magic mirror (which has been stolen), forcing him to face not only his past but the evil Snow Queen who’s set on avenging her sister Ravenna’s death. 

The Snow Queen is the role that Blunt is in talks to take, and Charlize Theron IS expected to return as Ravenna. Darabont actually wrote the current draft of the screenplay, but whether or not that will now go through any changes remains to be seen. (source)

 So the Snow White story will be dovetailing into a Snow Queen story, except that this queen isn't (and isn't related to) Snow White herself. And it now looks like this WILL be a sequel, not a prequel as it's been called for the past year+.

It's not the first time I've thought one could make a connection between the two stories but normally it would involve the Snow White character fairly centrally. This new movie/sequel looks to be working on a new fairy tale altogether. They're just setting in a world we already associate with Snow White. Unless there is some very interesting writing, there is the high probability that "a strong male protagonist will beat the evil woman", to much predictable criticism, but I hold out hope that people have their Bechdel tests handy to check the script against and maybe (maybe!) even consider looking at Andersen's original Snow Queen to consider balancing out the negative feminine energy with one or more of those other beloved characters (Little Robber Girl please!). The fact that Blunt is looking at the role at all, gives me optimism. She seems very particular in choosing smart roles that will reflect well on her and women in general.

Don't worry, my skepticism about this film-to-be is alive and well (why do I feel like we should be expecting a "Snow Trilogy"?), but after being impressed, despite myself, with what Kitsis and Horowitz (and the amazing Elizabeth Mitchell) did with the character of the OUAT's Snow Queen last year (right in the middle of possibly the worst storyline/arc/set-up to date), anything seems possible!  (We'll have to write about OUAT and Frozen another time...)

As an added hurdle for the film, The Huntsman (no Snow White in this film's title), has just lost their director due to creative differences but the film is still going full steam ahead in pre-production, aiming to hit the release date scheduled (April 22, 2016). A new director will apparently be announced next week.

I look forward to seeing their new director/direction and if Ms. Blunt will be part of it.

* Emily Blunt has also expressed interest in being involved in Frozen 2 - the Disney animated sequel movie currently in development.

Detail: Emily Blunt To Become (Villainous) "Snow Queen"?

0 OUAT Season 3 Finale: Hello Elsa? (+ SPOILERY-FINALE-SPOILERS! - all hidden under the jump, I promise)

OK, I'll admit it. I actually quite enjoyed the season 3 finale for OUAT. After a fairly "meh" reaction the whole of the first half of this season, it's been getting better and better and I found this one to be pretty solid overall. (Either I'm finally giving in to the show or this episode was actually better written than average.) After seeing the characters wandering around the jungles of Neverland for the 1st half of season 3 (for some reason it just fell a bit flat for me, despite the themes etc happening, which should have made for awesome) I've been enjoying, more than not, how the Oz-factor amped things for OUAT. The writing didn't have me cringing like it had been and there were enough Oz and other fairy tale references that weren't trumpeted so obviously to give the whole show more depth. (Yay!)

So, the finale: after complaining that I just didn't care about Snow & Charming anymore, (in fact, they had become downright boring and irritating) this episode put all the love back on track in a nice version of a replay-with-a-twist. Whomever mapped this episode out did a great job of keeping it true to OUAT's history but managed to inject new life into it, and without using the same already-seen-too-many-times scenes. Yay!

In fact, because of the subtleties and gently stretching a storyline we'd already gotten used to as an adaptation of the Snow White story, this felt more like an authentic fairy tale effort than things have a in a while.

The geeky references were also nicely done, with some nods to the Disney universe as well... also, is this the first overt use of Mickey Mouse and references to Disney films? (Don't worry - haven't spoiled anything.) I think there may have been another film reference or two somewhere in episodes past but the idea that OUAT characters sit down and watch Disney movies kinda twists your brain a little.

So it shouldn't be too much of a shock to anyone who's been watching OUAT that a full-on Frozen reference appeared in Storybrooke last night. That's not what I'm counting as spoilery. Everything about it though - the how's and why's and questions - should probably be considered spoilers so I'm hiding them under the jump...

✒✒✒✒ Click the "Read More" link below for spoilery discussion on the finale ✒✒✒✒

✒ ✒ Click the "Read more" link below for MANY more fairy tale like images with animals c/- Dash Kond ✒ ✒ - See more at: http://afairytale-blog.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-brave-cosplay-take-on-brave-yup-thats.html#sthash.kCtqh620.dpuf

✒ ✒ Click the "Read more" link below for MANY more fairy tale like images with animals c/- Dash Kond ✒ ✒ - See more at: http://afairytale-blog.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-brave-cosplay-take-on-brave-yup-thats.html#sthash.kCtqh620.dpuf

✒ ✒ Click the "Read more" link below for MANY more fairy tale like images with animals c/- Dash Kond ✒ ✒ - See more at: http://afairytale-blog.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-brave-cosplay-take-on-brave-yup-thats.html#sthash.kCtqh620.dpuf

I'll get to the Frozen reveal in a bit, but first, favorite things we saw:

• Meghan Ory return in both Wolf & Red form, showing her badassness, and that she could be quite a formidable character.. perhaps something to keep in mind should the team need extra help again in season 4... (Not a fan of the way she disappeared so quickly from the rest of the finale though.)

• Neal! I think this character just got better and better; more noble and more attractive. Although I knew it was unlikely because of the fan-swooning over Hook, I really wished Neal and Emma had ended up together, even if it was only short lived (as in Neal had to die). He just 'brings it' on screen.

• The Princess Bride-like reference in the costumes for Emma and Hook: Emma's in the classic plain red dress (albeit a little poof-ier than the classic, but it works) and standing with her is the dread pirate Roberts, I mean Killian. I think they may even have used the line "As you wish" somewhere in there...

• Emma's geek showing: Her Marty McFly reference and "I'm Princess.... Leia". Ha! Plus all the Disney nods that reference made as well.

• Snow White falling in love with Charming and Emma watching it all, made it more solid in a way, especially when things went wrong and their first meeting was interrupted (by Emma. Kids - sheesh!). Even though they borrowed a lot of that "disrupting the timeline" stuff it was well applied. Nicely written, nicely shot. 

• The Evil Queen's jeweled ensemble - wow. One of THE best costumes we have seen. In fact, all the costumes for this whole finale were better than average (except I think they could have been a little more creative with the very last costume we saw, even if the beading was beautiful, it felt like not-the-best cosplay). Although Belle's wedding er, 'ensemble' wasn't what I would have chosen, if they were going to go that route (which clearly they did) they did a nice job of it. (Personally I wanted her more pretty, or at least more adventure-Belle and less dowdy, but maybe that's just my girly side showing through. I guess I have one after all! ;)

• The Belle vows that included: "..sometimes the best teacup is chipped...". Admittedly, I was not looking forward to this wedding scene and I honestly expected more creativity with it (I don't mean "foof" I mean just smarter, lovelier, something in the library, or the clock tower or something referencing a rose.. something!) but although I wasn't on board at the beginning, it ended up being touching and despite his deception, you got the feeling Rumple really did love Belle. #thereshopeforthemyet

Least favorite things:

• Breaking Regina's heart. Again. I dearly hope we see some unexpected development in her character as a result of this, rather than defaulting to the dark side. In the meantime, the Marian reveal makes you want to give Tink a good, hard shake... Sadly, I find myself hoping Marian is evil... #ugh

• CAPTAINSWAN fans, avert your eyes: I'm about to commit heresy: The CaptainSwan ship finally arrives. And I was so bored by it! (Sorry, but I was.) I wish they'd played up more of the Princess Bride thing. That could have made it a lot more fun and made it feel a lot more like destiny. They even had some of the elements in place. Unfortunately, after having seen Neal earlier in the finale (and him saving Emma again in passing on his lock-picking knowledge) it just seemed a bit.. lazy. Especially after the Hook/Neal dynamic and Emma being so strong previously. I hope they 'Princess Bride' the rest of the relationship to make it more interesting because right now... #yawn

So on to the Frozen reveal.

Although we're not surprised it's happened, it is much sooner than expected. Perhaps it's a scramble-attempt to draw back fans who had no patience for the Neverland slump. Although possibly the best villain to date - Zelena - really revitalized the show, I know they're still not quite as high on the ratings scale as they were pre the Peter-Pan-is-baddie plot line. it's also possible that they felt a Frozen scenario wouldn't work very well in the Spring/Summer season next year so pushed it up to the Fall/Winter one for the start of season 4.

I also can't, for the life of me, find who played the Elsa-looking character or how she was referred to in the episode script. (Got info? Do share!)

I'm pretty sure the Elsa-teaser started earlier than the very end though. Remember the adoption scene? (From memory it was actually the very first scene of the finale dual episode.) With the little girl that got adopted, wearing blue? That is, wearing ELSA BLUE? Yeah, I think that was her, and that's going to come back to Emma (who was watching so unhappily) in season 4 too.

Because, note that she (Elsa) was hidden away in the vault of things too dark and powerful, too volatile for Rumple to deal with? That's not likely to be a gentle character. And then the question would be, how did she go from being an "I love Mickey Mouse" girl to getting locked away by Rumple?

Frozen Anna and Elsa by c-dra

And then there's the vagary with exactly who this is. It seems to be obviously Elsa but that could just as easily be a red herring. Remember the part in the movie where the frozen Anna turned human? Well, we saw a frozen person become human at the endas well, except it looked like Elsa (complete with costume), at least, it did from the back. Who's to say that's not actually Anna with a frozen heart who will need a bit of love to thaw her? She is Elsa's sister and, being genetically related, there's a chance she has some latent ice magic as well - perhaps some that doesn't manifest until she's been frozen...

And then there's the Elsa braid being on the wrong side. Why so important? Because history shows Oncers (ie. OUAT fans) notice those sorts of things. and either that's a gigantic mistake on the part of the costume people/writers OR it's a big clue.

Of course, it could just as easily be Elsa who's heart froze when she believed her sister died and she turned to the dark side. Elsa was, after all, originally intended to be a villain in the Disney movie but that seemed too harsh and the idea of sisters and family love resonated better for the family movie. However, OUAT is not as interested in looking after the kiddie demographic and isn't afraid to show a little darkness leaking through so evil-Elsa is a big possibility too. It might just be a problem for all those people who've adopted Elsa as a role-model/icon of embracing one's individuality and finding freedom.

Possibilities, possibilities. I do know they're going to need to tread carefully to twist the Anna/Elsa story. It's still pretty new and people are still getting to know Elsa and falling in love with her. Making her an outright villain might not be a good move on the part of the Frozen fandom. We'll just have to wait and see what they do. (Until Fall. We have to wait until FALL. *headdesk*)

And now that I've led you round that merry-go-round, here's the TV Guide scoop on theOUAT season 3 finale:

TVGuide.com pressed executive producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz for the scoop: 

Introducing Elsa was a great surprise! She's not really a villain in Frozen, though I have to imagine that she'd be pretty pissed after being locked up in that vault. What can you tell us about her and have you cast her? Adam Horowitz: We have not cast her. We haven't started that process yet. As for her being a villain, the thing we loved so much about that movie, among a million other things, was that Elsa was misunderstood.
Edward Kitsis: She was never a villain. She was only thought to be. For us, that's powerful.
Horowitz: We truly want to honor the character that everybody has fallen in love with so quickly. When you see how our interpretation of her and what we do with her, you will see that's exactly what we're trying to do. 

Is there a possibility to see Anna, Olaf and others from the Frozen world? Horowitz: We would be very disappointed if Elsa was the only one from that world that you saw. Who else may appear, we're not ready to tell you just yet.

You can read the whole interview HERE.

Questions we now have:

Wouldn't it be interesting if Swan got a little icy? ;)
(FAN-MADE)

• Who plays Elsa? (Casting is still up in the air, even after the finale aired.)
• Is it really Anna with a frozen heart who becomes the snow queen here? 
• As in, perhaps Kristen Bell, who we know was very interested in being part of anything Frozen happening on OUAT, is switching it up and playing a very cold Anna?
• Can we expect Jack Frost to appear and get on board with this popular fan 'ship? (There is a chance ABC won't do this because Dreamworks used a Jack Frost character but there would be a lot to play with!)
• If they have to make a curse reference or a troll reference, are they going to use Rumpelstiltskin?
• Will they do a bit of research and pull in some world wide snow queen/ice queen folklore to give it some teeth? (That would make a whole lot of people REALLY happy.)
• Are we going to see Olaf? Are we going to see him as more than an ice-cream shape homage on a cone?
• Will Olaf make a Frosty the Snowman crossover appearance for a Christmas episode?
• Is Rumple ALSO Hans? (I mean, he did lock Elsa away...)
• Or is Hook "Princess Emma-Leia's" Han Solo (Hans-olo?) and gets "frozen"? (Star Wars in carbonite/OUAT in ice)
• Will Dakota Fanning and Elle Fanning play Elsa and Anna? (Because that would be awesome.) Alright, the odds of this are pretty much zero but I'm going to just say "you can see it, can't you"? They even fit their real life personalities to an extent...

Well, we can now clear up some of those questions: the creators are saying it's definitely Elsa we saw (I left the questions to stretch your brain a little).are some excerpts from another scoop at the Hollywood Reporter on it being Elsa and Frozen vs Snow Queen:

Kristen Bell as Elsa FAN-MADE WISHING  POSTER

Was that the Snow Queen, or Frozen’s Elsa, in the final moments?Adam Horowitz: That was Elsa. 

So you’ll base the character on Frozen and not the original fairy tale?Horowitz: We are dealing with the world of Frozen. We are honored to be allowed to do it. We loved the movie. We fell in love with it when it came out last year like everyone did, and we want to do our best to do it justice.
Eddy Kitsis: [What] we loved so much about the character of Elsa was that she was considered a villain but she never really was. She was misunderstood. That, on our show, speaks to us so strongly, that it was a toy we had to play with. It’s funny because I see lots of people [saying] “Oh! Did Disney ask them to do this?” It’s quite the opposite. It’s actually quite hard to get these characters on the show. It’s not like you get a call from Mickey Mouse saying, “I want you to sell mermaids this week.” It’s the opposite. It’s very hard to get these. We were very honored that Disney allowed us to take this toy off the shelf and let us play with it. 

Will Disney have substantial input in how she’s incorporated into the show or will you have free rein?Horowitz: The process I’m guessing it will be similar to how it’s been with all these characters. In many ways, it’s like using Snow White, using a character from Frozen -- it’s just a hundred-year difference. Our scripts and our ideas get vetted by the studio and the network and Disney’s brand management people, and I’m sure that process will continue. 

When should we first expect to see her in season four?Horowitz: I would expect it to be very, very early.
Kitsis: I would hope that it’s in the premiere.

I've left out a lot so if you want it all, go read HERE.

Still, so many possibilities, so many questions. Of course, knowing the writers haven't figured it all out for themselves yet means they're being deliberately vague... Such a fun playground for those guys to work in.

I'll admit I'm disappointed that they're sticking closely to the Disney world of Frozen, mainly because I believe the tales surrounding Snow Queens and Ice Maidens would work really well if incorporated into the character and story lines. Unfortunately, in ways like this, I really think it shows that they're not doing they're research outside of the Disney canon or certain movies (MGMs Wizard of Oz).

Still, we have fairy tales on TV! I am not complaining about that, even if I'd love to see some things done differently, and I most certainly do not want it to disappear any time soon! Keep 'em coming and keep people talking about fairy tales!

What are your thoughts?
What are your questions?
What are you going to do until the new season starts?

Detail: OUAT Season 3 Finale: Hello Elsa? (+ SPOILERY-FINALE-SPOILERS! - all hidden under the jump, I promise)