About
Creeping Beauty: Fairy Tales Gone Bad Synopsis
A subversive, funny - and deliciously prickly! - tale for the young reader looking for a book with bite.
Eshe and her twelve sisters are Fairy Godmothers, honoured for the incredible gifts they can bestow. But Eshe's special abilities are a little different - she can glimpse into the future! And, one day, Eshe foresees something terrifying: a world blanketed in creeping vines and a girl covered in thorns. Eshe needs to stop her vision becoming true, but it will require old and powerful magic. And she won't be able to do it alone...
Shortlisted for the Week Junior Book Awards 2023
Following on from Zombierella and Frankenstiltskin, this is the third and final book in a deliciously dark trilogy of twisted classics, written in verse by award-winning poet Joseph Coelho and illustrated by Freya Hartas.
About This Edition
ISBN: |
9781406389685 |
Publication date: |
29th September 2022 |
Author: |
Joseph Coelho |
Illustrator: |
Freya Hartas |
Publisher: |
Walker Books Ltd |
Format: |
Paperback |
Pagination: |
206 pages |
Series: |
Fairy Tales Gone Bad |
Suitable For: |
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Other Genres: |
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Press Reviews
Joseph Coelho Press Reviews
Creeping Beauty is a wonderful creepy, gripping twisted fairy tale [...] Written in verse this book is funny, dark and you just won't want to put it down. - Little Blog of Library Treasures
Dreadfully dark and brilliantly subversive, Joseph's decidedly prickly twisted take on Sleeping Beauty is, like Zombierella and Frankenstiltskin, absolutely awesome. Long live the power of love and friendship. Freya Hartas' wonderful black and white illustrations are in turn eerily eye-catching or cleverly comical. - Red Reading Hub
I loved Zombierella and Frankenstiltskin and I can report that Creeping Beauty is just as fascinating to read. The layout is as mesmerising as ever and Freya's illustrations are stunning. I read this so quickly as it feels so familiar yet equally has its own unique flair to make this fairytale so original. It's definitely a fresher take on Sleeping Beauty with the power of teamwork and friendship at its heart. - Check 'Em Out Books
This twist on Sleeping Beauty is absorbing, original and deliciously magical. - BookTrust
featured in a list of 'Halloween reads for ages 7+' - Library Girl and Book Boy
Author
About Joseph Coelho
Joseph Coelho is the Waterstones Children’s Laureate 2022-2024, and an award-winning poet, playwright and writer. His first poetry collection, Werewolf Club Rules!, won the CLPE Children's Poetry Award in 2015, and he has been writing and performing ever since. His picture books include If All the World Were... illustrated by Allison Colpoys and Luna Loves Library Day illustrated by Fiona Lumbers. His poetry books for children include Overheard in a Tower Block illustrated by Kate Milner and A Year of Nature Poems illustrated by Kelly Louise Judd.
His ‘Story told in poems’, for age 12+, The Girl Who Became A Tree, was shortlisted for The 2021 Carnegie Medal and received a special mention from the Bologna Ragazzi Award 2021. His YA verse novel, The Boy Lost in the Maze, is longlisted for the Yoto Carnegie Award for Writing 2024, has been chosen as an outstanding international book for The White Ravens collection 2023 and has also been nominated as an IBBY Honour Book for 2024.
He has written plays for the Polka Theatre, the Lyric, Hammersmith, and the Unicorn Theatre. He creates dynamic poetry theatre pieces for young people that he tours nationally. He also performs with the UK's top performance poetry organisation, Apples and Snakes, visiting venues across the UK. Joseph has been a guest poet in Cbeebies' Rhyme Rocket.
Originally from London, he now lives by the sea in Kent.
More About Joseph Coelho