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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
Such a very very simple story about a fairytale - sleeping beauty mixed with the Holocaust and it works extremely well. For such a tiny book it packs a punch. As Becca's beloved grandmother, Gemma, dies, she asks Becca to seek the truth about her past and the fairytale she consistently told to Becca as a child growing up. Packed with a box of Gemma's photographs, Becca uncovers her grandmothers tragic and mysterious past.
emotional
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Really good and insightful. I love how Yolan was able to use the story of Sleeping Beauty in a new and different way.
dark
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen is dark re-telling of the story of Sleeping Beauty. Ever since she can remember, Rebecca Berlin's grandma--called Gemma because one of Becca's sister's couldn't say "grandma"--has told her family the story of Sleeping Beauty. But Gemma's version is much darker than the standard versions with no one but Briar Rose waking from the hundred year's sleep and several of Becca's friends no longer want to hear it when they all are young. But Becca always loved the story and Gemma always told her that she was the only one who understood.
So it's no surprise that when Gemma is close to death she makes Becca promise to find her castle and her prince. And then, once she is gone, the family finds a box of papers, photographs, and odd keepsakes among Gemma's things. The more Becca digs into the materials the more she realizes how little they knew about the woman they called Gemma. And the more connections she makes between what she learns and the Briar Rose story her grandma used to tell. She works through the story with Stan, a friend and fellow journalist, until it becomes clear that she will have to make a trip to Poland to make sense of the clues she's found. The clues lead her to one of the horrific extermination camps of the Holocaust. Chelmo--a place of which it is said no woman ever made it out alive.
This was a reread for me. I first read it back at the end of high school when I had recently discovered Jane Yolen. I thought it a terrific and haunting use of the classic fairy tale to represent one woman's negotiation of the terrible experiences she endured during the Holocaust. By masking the events in a fairy tale she told to her daughter and then to her daughter's daughters, by using this particular story to entertain children she was able to bring joy out darkness. She was able to emphasize the very specific happy ending--hers with her family in America--that came out of all grief and loss of the second World War. As the dust jacket flap tells us: "This is a tale of life and death, of love and hate, despair and faith. A tale of castles and thorns and sharp barbed wire." It is a tale of a beautiful princess saved by one brave prince and loved by another even braver and the way love can grow out of the harshest, thorniest soil. I gave it ★★★★★ in high school. I have no changes to make in that rating now.
First posted on my blog
So it's no surprise that when Gemma is close to death she makes Becca promise to find her castle and her prince. And then, once she is gone, the family finds a box of papers, photographs, and odd keepsakes among Gemma's things. The more Becca digs into the materials the more she realizes how little they knew about the woman they called Gemma. And the more connections she makes between what she learns and the Briar Rose story her grandma used to tell. She works through the story with Stan, a friend and fellow journalist, until it becomes clear that she will have to make a trip to Poland to make sense of the clues she's found. The clues lead her to one of the horrific extermination camps of the Holocaust. Chelmo--a place of which it is said no woman ever made it out alive.
This was a reread for me. I first read it back at the end of high school when I had recently discovered Jane Yolen. I thought it a terrific and haunting use of the classic fairy tale to represent one woman's negotiation of the terrible experiences she endured during the Holocaust. By masking the events in a fairy tale she told to her daughter and then to her daughter's daughters, by using this particular story to entertain children she was able to bring joy out darkness. She was able to emphasize the very specific happy ending--hers with her family in America--that came out of all grief and loss of the second World War. As the dust jacket flap tells us: "This is a tale of life and death, of love and hate, despair and faith. A tale of castles and thorns and sharp barbed wire." It is a tale of a beautiful princess saved by one brave prince and loved by another even braver and the way love can grow out of the harshest, thorniest soil. I gave it ★★★★★ in high school. I have no changes to make in that rating now.
First posted on my blog
I liked the idea behind Briar Rose a lot, but it moved really slowly. I also thought the ending didn't bring it back around to the beginning enough -- there was a lot of tension with the main character's family in the beginning that was never resolved, so finishing the book was unsatisfying.
Chilling and beautiful. Sleeping Beauty during the Holocaust.
http://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2012/11/2012-book-317.html
Becca's grandma Gemma has always been a little different. She never liked to talk about her past. Instead, she told the same bedtime story for as long as Becca can remember - Briar Rose. Her dying words prompt Becca to search for the truth about her beloved Gemma and what she finds is more amazing and powerful than she could ever have expected.
I really liked this story. I like Jane Yolen, but for some reason, I never felt prompted to pick up this book, thinking it was some depressing, didactic story about the Holocaust. But the group read here prompted me to give it a try. I am so glad that I did. It is not the best book I've read so far this year, but it is very good. More for older teens, mostly because of mature themes and some very dark segments.
I really liked this story. I like Jane Yolen, but for some reason, I never felt prompted to pick up this book, thinking it was some depressing, didactic story about the Holocaust. But the group read here prompted me to give it a try. I am so glad that I did. It is not the best book I've read so far this year, but it is very good. More for older teens, mostly because of mature themes and some very dark segments.