Welcome to our Fairy tale Adaptations book club! This go round we’ve selected four books that showed their author’s take on various fairy tales and folktales. Each of our books below have their own Discussion Posts and don’t forget, we’ll be having our Zoom Book Club on Saturday September 18 at 7 pm EDT.
Other Discussions
- The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
- Deerskin by Robin McKinley
- Sea Witch by Sarah Henning
- Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson
For those of you returning or who might be joining in for #CannonBookClub for the first time (hello new friends!) all are welcome, you don’t have to be registered for CBR13. The topics are numbered, and we ask that you refer to them below by that number to help people find the conversations they are looking for. If you are responding to someone else’s thoughts, please try to reply directly to them.
We will also be talking on our Social Media platforms, and of course in our Facebook group, Cannonball Read Book Chat, we’ll have some additional prompts so please join us there as well. Now, on to the questions!

- Do you think there ‘s any special power in taking a known story and envisioning it in a new way?
- Is there a quest in this book? Whose quest is it? What is its object?
- What is the nature of the bond between Lissar and Ash? What do different characters’ responses to animals tell us about them?
- What do you think of the change from donkeyskin to deerskin in this version?
- McKinley’s narrative asks its reader to think about unquestioned devotion, and its fallout. How were you left feeling?
- How does pacing affect your response to the trauma in the book?