Sleepless Beauty

 

Sleepless Beauty by Frances Minters and illustrated by G. Brian Karas.

This book is a modern day version of Sleeping Beauty set in a big city. A wicked witch is scorned when she doesn’t receive an invitation to a welcome party for the newborn baby named Their Own Little Beauty (yes, that’s the baby’s name). She then curses the baby with the traditional Sleeping Beauty curse—that she will prick her finger and then fall into a deep sleep for a hundred years until a rock star will awaken her with a song. The girl’s family then tries to protect her by keeping everything sharp away from her. But the wicked witch visits her and the girl pricks her finger on the needle of an old record player. The girl has tricked the witch and therefore does not fall victim to the curse. Rather than a prince rescuing her, she uses her own clever wit to saver herself.

The book is written in rhyming verse. My favorite part is when the girl says that she couldn’t use a pencil until someone used it twice. There are two women at a nail salon and a jazz player who appear at various times in the margins of the book making comments about the story such as: “they actually named her Their Own Little Beauty”.

The illustrations are dark and gloomy and give the book a little bit of a sinister look. There are a few hidden happy faces that I found throughout the book, including on the alarm clock (perhaps foreshadowing to how the girl will rescue herself at the end of the book).