Snoring Beauty

by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen, Jane Manning (Illustrator)

Overview

Snoring Beauty is a sweetly hilarious spin on the classic fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty." Written in bouncy rhymed verse perfect for reading aloud, this whimsical reimagining from Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen is sure to appeal to children and parents alike.

Tucked in his little bed inside the castle walls, Mouse is eager to get a good night's sleep before his wedding tomorrow. But just as he begins to drift off, he's awoken by a tremendous roar. SNOOOOGA-SNOOOOOM! KER-SCHUPPP! Sleeping Beauty is snoring . . . again! When the handsome Prince Max arrives, Mouse thinks he's found the perfect scheme: He'll convince the prince to kiss Beauty and wake her up! But when Prince Max learns that Beauty is the one making such monstrous noises, will he still want to kiss her . . . or will he run away from the noisy princess, leaving her snoring for another hundred years?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060874032
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/04/2014
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	9.70(w) x 9.40(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen is the author of numerous fiction and nonfiction books for children, including Pirate Princess, illustrated by Jill McElmurry; Hampire!, illustrated by Howard Fine; and Tightrope Poppy the High-Wire Pig, illustrated by Sarah Dillard. Sudipta lives in New Jersey with her family.

Jane Manning is the illustrator of dozens of children's books, including the I Can Read books Baa-Choo! by Sarah Weeks and the New York Times bestselling The Witch Who Was Afraid of Witches by Alice Low. She lives in Connecticut.

Editorial Reviews

Fun for reading aloud, and children will be happy to help with the multiple snoring sounds.” — Booklist

“A good choice for reading aloud.” — School Library Journal

From the Publisher

Fun for reading aloud, and children will be happy to help with the multiple snoring sounds.

Booklist

Fun for reading aloud, and children will be happy to help with the multiple snoring sounds.

Booklist

03/01/2014
K-Gr 2—A mouse who lives within the walls of a castle is unable to fall asleep the night before his wedding due to the loud snoring coming from a princess nearby. A prince comes to kiss the beauty awake, but he is put off by her loud noises. The only way for Mouse to get some shut-eye is to kiss the princess himself. The story ends with a double wedding, and the brides and grooms all live happily ever after-except for the fact that Mrs. Mouse snores, too. Bright watercolor illustrations and expressive characters add a whimsical feel to this fairy-tale spin-off. Snoring sounds are even illustrated on some pages for comic emphasis. The layout fluctuates from single-page images with text opposite to full spreads, creating visual variety. Told in varied iambic meter that has a limerick feel, the text has an easy flow and perfect scansion, making it a good choice for reading aloud.—Emily E. Lazio, The Smithtown Special Library District, NY

School Library Journal

2014-01-15
A mouse in his house—which is also Sleeping Beauty's castle—attempts to get a full night's sleep before his wedding but is stymied by the great wracking snores of the princess herself. Mouse eagerly lets a prince named Max in, but the prince does not fancy kissing a snoring Beauty. Together, man and mouse hold her nose, pour water on her and tickle her feet to no avail. In desperation, Mouse puckers up and kisses her himself, and she wakes in time to get a kiss from Max. All this is illustrated in splashy watercolors that integrate a wide array of onomatopoeia to represent snoring ("SNOOOOGA-SNOOOOOM," "KA-RENCHHHHH"); human and mouse physiognomies both sport very long noses. Mouse's (and Max's) eventual success is short-lived: Mouse discovers after their double wedding that he has not escaped the sounds of snoring after all. What is clearly intended to be silly is, alas, not light enough to make the grade. Max is not interested in anything but Beauty's crown and castle, Mouse is revolted by kissing a human, and the treatment of Beauty while she is sleeping borders on the cruel if not unusual. It's all presented in rhyme (ABCCB) in a typeface that is pretty but not as easily read as it might be. Snore. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews