CHILDREN’S book of the week

GENDER SWAPPED FAIRY TALES

by Karrie Fransman and Jonathan Plackett, Faber & Faber, £20 (ebook £9.99) HANDSOME and the Beast, Gretel and Hansel, Jacqueline and the Beanstalk... it’s amazing what a difference it makes when you switch the male and female parts in fairy tales, as this beautifully produced new edition shows.

Using an algorithm designed by Jonathan Plackett, this book swaps all gendered language in well-known fairy tales.

This simple switch shows how often traditional tales give agency and autonomy to the boys and the men, while the girls and the women are left to be victims and ornaments, their destinies at the mercy of male will. The lengthy sentences and occasionally archaic language of the original underline how dated these attitudes are.

To avoid introducing any new assumptions about gender or sex, the book sticks to the Langs’ Fairy Books collection, published between 1889 and 1913.

A thought-provoking book that parents and older children will enjoy reading and discussing.