Hayley Wells: Childrens Literature- The Twelve Dancing Princesses

The Twleve Dancing Princesses 

from the book of

Fairy Tales

By Brothers Grimm

Illustrated by Cathie Shuttleworth 

Retold by Nicola Baxter

SUMMARY:
This engaging book contains many fairy tales that children would find entertaining. The Twelve Dancing Princesses was published in 1997 and retold by Nicola Baxter. It is a different sort of a fairy tale that involves a mystery. The King has no idea what his twelve daughters get up to at night and hires princes to find out the mystery. After the third night, if they have failed, they will be be-headed but if they succeed they shall choose one of the daughters to marry. One by one they fail, until a soldier runs into an old mysterious woman who tells him how to succeed. He tricks the princesses and follows them into a secret room where trees surround them, the princesses meet the princes and they cross the water to the dancing palace. After the third night, the prince approaches the king along with evidence of what he has seen and the Princesses admit to their mischief. He chooses the eldest to marry and her sisters are welcome to dance at the wedding. The illustrator, Cathie Shuttleworth creates images using bold colours that stand out and the reader can imagine being in the setting that's shown. The detail in the characters is quite good but still maintains a cartoon look. 

USE IN CLASS:
The Twelve Dancing Princesses can be used in a year 4 class to see how the students respond to the situation and solution. They can then have a discussion and express their feelings about it. 
- What if this happened? instead of ...
- What did the king think the Princesses were doing?
- Would the soldier still attempt to solve the mystery if the old lady didn't tell him?

LINKS TO ACARA:
The above suggestion of the use of the book within the classroom fits into the English Curriculum as the key idea, "Discuss literary experiences with others, sharing responses and expressing point of view," as stated by ACARA (2012), supports students to discuss their responses to the book. This key idea comes under the strand of Literature and the sub-strand of Responding to Literature.