{"id":776,"date":"2013-04-25T10:00:58","date_gmt":"2013-04-25T15:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=776"},"modified":"2013-04-22T16:16:32","modified_gmt":"2013-04-22T21:16:32","slug":"v-for-versified-in-lies-knives-and-girls-in-red-dresses-by-ron-koertge-book-review-brief-and-bitter-fairy-tales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=776","title":{"rendered":"V for Versified in Lies, Knives, and Girls in Red Dresses, by Ron Koertge (book review) – brief and bitter fairy tales"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"book<\/a>Lies can morph into dark truths,
\nKnives can wound<\/a> as much as they protect,
\nGirls in red dresses… red for romance? red for blood?<\/p>\n

It’s Novels in Verse Week, so try some lies in Audition<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0 by Stasia Ward Kehoe, or travel through the blood shed in Karma<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0 by Cathy Ostlere, then watch out for the knives in this book, whose verses are as cuttingly sharp as its silhouette<\/a> illustrations.<\/p>\n

What other novels in verse have you read during National Poetry Month<\/a>?
\n**kmm<\/p>\n

Book info<\/strong>: Lies, Knives, and Girls in Red Dresses \/ Ron Koertge; illustrated by Andrea Dezso. Candlewick Press, 2012.\u00a0 [author site<\/a>] [artist site<\/a>]\u00a0 [publisher site<\/a>] [book trailer<\/a>]<\/p>\n

My recommendation<\/strong>: Twenty fairy tales, twenty chances for freedom and redemption, so many choices, but rarely the right one.<\/p>\n

Here “Godfather Death” has a Heisman Trophy winner for a godson, there “The Little Match Girl” tries to sell her CDs on a slum street corner. The offer of a “Bearskin” that will take away the wearer’s nightmares comes to a wounded soldier in the VA hospital.<\/p>\n

Each tale is accompanied by Andrea Dezso’s silhouette illustrations, all black and white, lines and spaces, the better to imagine where the red-hooded girl meets the wolf, where the blood of ogres and slain wives flows, where sunset will soon leave the city in dangerous darkness.<\/p>\n

Sharp and slim as a silver dagger, Koertge’s free verse slices away the sentimental layers added to the original Grimm Brothers’ tales to make dangerous situations and dire circumstances more palatable to modern audiences. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com<\/a>) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lies can morph into dark truths, Knives can wound as much as they protect, Girls in red dresses… red for romance? red for blood? It’s Novels in Verse Week, so try some lies in Audition,\u00a0 by Stasia Ward Kehoe, or travel through the blood shed in Karma,\u00a0 by Cathy Ostlere, then watch out for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,19,30],"tags":[10,22,20,5,37,18,43,39,38,49,93,15,21,35,33,60,53,8,28],"class_list":["post-776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fairy-tales","category-fiction","category-legends","tag-a2z","tag-behavior","tag-conflict","tag-coping","tag-death","tag-family","tag-growing-up","tag-love","tag-magic","tag-memories","tag-poetry","tag-relationships","tag-self-image","tag-surprises","tag-survival","tag-tbr2012","tag-us-artist","tag-us-author","tag-villains"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=776"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":778,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions\/778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}