Gender Swapped Fairy Tales

You might think from the image on the cover, or from the dedication to their daughter, that this book swaps genders in a way to help women be protagonists instead of victims. I love old fairy tales, but I was excited to have a more lady-positive perspective.

There are 12 stories in this book. With the gender swapping, 7 feature male protagonists, 4 feature female, and one (Gretel and Hansel) is pretty egalitarian. There are fewer female mains than in the original stories from the 1890s! In addition, the authors specify that all they did was swap the genders, no additional editing. While it makes for an interesting study, it makes for disjointed reading; the language between the different stories is inconsistent, and especially difficult if you're reading aloud. A bit of editing would have helped make it a more pleasant reading experience.

The illustrations are gorgeous. I wish they'd been in a better book.