H. Chuku Lee

This book is similar to the original but quite different. A father left for a business trip and he asks all of his daughters what they wanted for him to get. All of them wanted material things except one of his daughters wanted a single rose. I know he had to ask himself why she wanted it but he agreed to get it. The father returns and explains his trip which he says was horrible. He tells them how he came upon a castle and how invisible servants gave him clothes and food to get, but remembered that one of his daughters wanted a rose. The father found a garden and picked a rose, but also there was a beast there stating to him that the roses were his favorite. The beast wanted to kill him but the father told him he picked the rose for his daughter so he wanted to give it to her before the beast could kill him. The beast let him go and give it to her, but the daughter couldn't let him go by himself so she went. When they arrive the beast made a deal that the daughter couldn't leave forever and the dad would get a chance to be alive.
The beast fell in love with the daughter and ask her to marry him several times but she says no every time. The beast had a special mirror that the daughter can see her family and she saw that her father was sick and dying and she wanted to go. The beast let her go but made her promise to come back in a certain amount of days. She stayed more days than what she said she was and she started having dreams that the beast was dead. The daughter realized that she was falling in love with the beast so she snuck out to go back where the beast was not knowing he was dying and he was laying in the garden. She finally found him and he told him that she loved him and he turns into a handsome prince. He explained to her that an evil fairy change him into this beast until someone truly loved him comes along. They got married and live happily ever after with the whole family staying in that one castle.… (altro)

This story varies just slightly from the traditional Beauty and the Beast. Beauty lives with her sisters and fathers instead of just the father. The father sets out to the city and stumbles upon the castle. There he sees a rose which his daughter had asked for. The beast catches him, and he would have to pay for his life for stealing. The beast lets the father visit home once more and this is when beauty decides she will go with him. She gives her life for her father’s freedom. The beast is kind to her and asks her to marry him even though she knew she was falling in love with him she declined. When her father become ill she could finally leave but was supposed to return after eight days. After the guilt over took her thoughts she returned on the tenth day to find the beast near death. When she tells the beast, she loves him he turns into a wonderful prince. A curse was put on him by an evil fairy until a woman loved him for himself. I believe that no matter how many varieties of this story there are they all teach the same lessons. Beauty is found within regardless of outward appearances. We must love people for who they are not what they look like! Beauty and the Beast has been one of my ultimate favorite stories since I was little, and this version did not disappoint.… (altro)

This adaptation of Beauty and the Beast was very impressive because it stuck to the original fairytale version of the story, rather than the sugar-coated Disney version. The book itself stuck true to the original tale in the sense that Beauty had sisters and did not live alone with her father, and also that Beast proposed to Beauty every night in hope that she will one day marry him. The only difference in this story and the original is that the setting of the story is in West Africa, presenting the characters as beautiful African women dressed in traditional African attire. The illustrations were so colorful and absolutely stunning, and is a wonderful inspiration to children. I loved that this adaptation did not sugar coat the story like Disney does, but sticks to the original masterpiece.… (altro)