These stories thousands of years old have stood the test of time, and with their age old themes of loss, love and sacrifice, still impact our lives and new stories written today. Having changed the way we look at Fairy Tales in their last book, Karrie and Jon have turned to these ancient stories to see what magic their marvelous gender swapping machine can work on them. As before, they haven't rewritten these myths. They haven't reimagined endings, or reinvented characters. All they've done is switch all the genders. It is hard to put into words how clever these books are and for me to explain why these gender swapped myths and the original Gender Swapped Fairy Tales are so important. They’re talking to me on a video call, sitting on their bed, “like John and Yoko”, laughs Fransman, letting slip a little unconscious bias, which she readily confesses to. It comes out when she’s with her four-year-old daughter, too, “referring to animals as male – Hello Mr Magpie – or assuming the school photographer is a man, and I think I’m a switched on card-carrying feminist!”

I used to be fascinated by Greek mythology, but, even as a teenager, knew that they were fiction and a reflection of a long-gone society. That's one of the things that made them interesting. And does this book include the story of a male god turning a huntress into a stag to be torn apart by her own hounds for accidentally seeing him bathing nude? Because that would be a great one. And I want to see male Hera and Athena sponsor an eleven year vendetta against Troy because they're jealous that a mortal said Male Aphrodite was better looking than them. Today, these myths continue to shape our ideas about justice, tragedy and what makes a hero’s journey.Beginning life as a woman Hatshepsut ruled as regent upon the death of her husband Thutmose II, the throne passed to her son, Thutmose III. Too young to rule alone, Hatshepsut was regent for her son for three years, until for reasons unknown, she became Pharaoh.

What would you think if the tales from Ancient Greece that we know so well were turned on their heard? When I was reading kid’s versions of the Greek myths I was bizarrely naive. Or perhaps just ordinary levels of naive for a child that age. I had to make my own inferences and deductions about sexism and misogyny from my reading material - and I think I did a pretty good job all things considered, but it drove me a bit nuts that nobody ever talked about it. However, there are some ways I feel that the story could improve. I felt that a few of the names were confusing, such as Danae, which was changed to Danaus, and Danaus, which was changed to Danae. Also, the change of dryads to satyrs was confusing, as they are already both established groups of characters in the myths. On the other hand, the name bank at the end of the book was incredibly useful, but hard to find if you didn’t realise it was there.... Read Full ReviewThe use of an algorithm to do this became glaringly obvious as the stories went on and felt, frankly, quite lazy. Now if it had been done by hand with choices made by the author perhaps the writing would’ve read a lot more authentic. As it stands it’s just ok. And a little awkward in places.

Seems a bit of a weird take to me. Were there that many people thinking that Zeus turning into a swan and raping a woman was some kind of salutary life example for the listener? That swapping the sexes will suddenly make people realise that this is wrong after all? People have been telling fairy tales to their children for hundreds of years. And for almost as long, people have been rewriting those fairy tales – to help their children imagine a world where they are the heroes. Karrie and Jon were reading their child these stories when they hit upon a dilemma, something previous versions of these stories were missing, and so they decided to make one vital change.

Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks. Home > A new captivating, inspiring, and totally perspective-shifting volume from the wife and husband team behind Gender Swapped Fairy Tales