Read and Download Ebook Briar Rose: A Novel of the Fairy Tale Series... Briar Rose: A Novel of the Fairy Tale Series Jane Yolen PDF File: Briar Rose: A Novel of the Fairy 1 Tale Series... Read and Download Ebook Briar Rose: A Novel of the Fairy Tale Series... Briar Rose: A Novel of the Fairy Tale Series Jane Yolen Briar Rose: A Novel of the Fairy Tale Series Jane Yolen It is an old, old tale, the German story of Briar Rose, the Sleeping Beauty. Now one of America's most celebrated writers tells it afresh, set this time in the forests patrolled by the German army during World War II. A tale of castles, of mists and thorns, of a beautiful sleeping princess, and an astonishing revelation of death and rebirth. A tale that will leave you changed forever. The tale of Briar Rose. Briar Rose: A Novel of the Fairy Tale Series Details Date : Published November 15th 1993 by Tor Books (first published August 31st 1988) ISBN : 9780812558623 Author : Jane Yolen Format : Mass Market Paperback 224 pages Young Adult, Fantasy, Historical, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Fairy Tales, World War II, Genre : Holocaust Download Briar Rose: A Novel of the Fairy Tale Series ...pdf Read Online Briar Rose: A Novel of the Fairy Tale Series ...pdf Download and Read Free Online Briar Rose: A Novel of the Fairy Tale Series Jane Yolen PDF File: Briar Rose: A Novel of the Fairy 2 Tale Series... Read and Download Ebook Briar Rose: A Novel of the Fairy Tale Series... From Reader Review Briar Rose: A Novel of the Fairy Tale Series for online ebook Chris Horsefield says Wonderful book for young readers...grades 6-8. A fun story about a young girl who learns about her grandmother's true identity through the content of a box her grandmother leaves her. If you enjoyed , , and you will enjoy it. I was going to add to the list and as fantastic and education the 'Night' is, its not really for young Adult. Briar Rose is perfect for the YA format. Set in the present day with flashbacks to the Holocaust, it is an unforgettable story. Yolen skillfully weaves Gemma's recounting of the Briar Rose story with what really happened and it is heartbreaking and moving. The novel is filled with great characters - Becca, who agrees to find out Gemma's story and pledges to do so no matter what; Stan, her editor who encourages her to do so; Magda, the irrepressible Polish girl who helps Becca; Josef Potoki, who fills in many of the blanks in Gemma's life (his story is one of the most moving parts of the book); and of course Gemma herself as her story unfolds. Also playing a powerful part in the novel is the visit to Chelmno - not only the place itself but the reaction of the people living near there to the visitors. Gemma and Josef's stories are moving in many ways - a reminder of how much people lost during the Holocaust. The discoveries that Becca makes about Gemma and also the ones that she is unable to make are heartbreaking, yet heartwarming. Circus Folk says I am still baffled by the amount of rave reviews Briar Rose received. Admittedly, the story is very unique. The idea of comparing the Holocaust to the Sleeping Beauty fairytale may seem a bit far-fetched initially, yet Yolen manages to bring the truth of this parallel to light. Unfortunately, it was executed in a way that really detracted from what was formally an original idea. Instead we are left with a poorly written, confused, and mediocre young adult novel. Many of the characters that populate this book are completely unconvincing. Beccah is a shallow protagonist with a boring personality and no flaws to speak of. Magda stuck out to me in particular. She was a nuisance to read with her broken English, and her benign comments seemed to only reinforce the stereotype of the “Stupid Polack.” Stan was a useless plot device (Beccah’s love interest) and should have been further developed or thrown out entirely, as the romance seemed to have no real purpose at all. There also seems to be an issue in this book with age. Many of the adults act like children. Beccah is so immature I thought her to be 16 or 17 rather than 23. Her sisters were by far the worst though, with their constant bickering and melodramatics, spewing out comments that only a spiteful 10 year old would say. Every time I read their dialogue I would consider putting down the book permanently. Unfortunately this was required reading for a class, so on I read. I would have much rather seen a novel based on the story Josef tells. The characters were much more human and the action much more real. But even this part of the novel was lacking It wasn’t developed enough to be heart wrenching in the way it had the potential to be. It is not difficult to make stories about the Holocaust sad. However, to make it a truly emotional story, one must pay close attention to the characters and the pacing. Both of these are severely neglected. However, this isn’t just an issue with the telling of Josef’s story. There seems to be something missing throughout the entire book. It desperately needed to be further elaborated on and tied together more neatly. PDF File: Briar Rose: A Novel of the Fairy 3 Tale Series... Read and Download Ebook Briar Rose: A Novel of the Fairy Tale Series... Overall Briar Rose was a great idea that fell flat due to poor character development, writing, and (what seemed to me) laziness. The amount of complaints I have about this novel are innumerable. The only thing that really keeps me from calling it one of the most disappointing books I have ever read is the idea that underlies it. There is so much untapped potential here it is frustrating. I wish Yolen had taken better advantage of the opportunity she was given. Muphyn says Hmm, I first rated this 3 stars, now I'm debatting to downgrad it to 2 stars. The start was good, the ending wasn't too bad but the middle was seriously weak - I was not impressed (and I can't even be bothered to go into all the details). Just a couple of things... 1) Once Becca got to Poland (and oh, wasn't that all so very easy all of a sudden?), she was just sooo annoying, constantly correcting Magda's English. Interestingly, Magda only seemed to have trouble constructing simple sentences in English, complex ones was quite a different cattle of fish and one she mastered quite beautifully ("She has raised me since my parents are gone (p.119) cf. "I think ... that there is a man who will not let death take him by the hand until he has finished what he has begun." (p.158)). 2) I'd really appreciated a better copyeditor; please do double-check the names of concentration camps mentioned... Sachenhausen is not the name of the labour camp north of Berlin near Oranienburg (not Oranienberg, big difference), it's Sachsenhausen. That really seriously irked me; perhaps because I've been to Sachsenhausen at least a couple of times. But perhaps I should just be happy that Auschwitz and Majdanek were spelled correctly?? I also seriously doubt that Polish Jews spoke Hebrew to one another, I'm pretty sure that would have been Yiddish... never mind. On the upside, Briar Rose is intriguing. Taking the concept of a fairytale and weaving in a holocaust story was definitely not something I'd read before, especially with the take on homosexuals. (view spoiler); Poland is an awfully conservative and Catholic country, is it not? Well, maybe I'll stick with the 3 star rating for now. Lisa Vegan says Wow! I read it in one day and that is unusual for me. I couldn’t put it down. It’s different from what I was expecting, I guess because her The Devil’s Arithmetic had a young teen protagonist and had more of a speculative fiction aspect, and I was afraid this would be pure fairy tale. However, this story is not fantasy but modern day & historical fiction Holocaust fiction, with fictional aspects added to Holocaust events – with a made up small group of people and one person in particular. It also works as psychological fiction. Yes, the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale has its place here, and I saw a bit of Cinderella too. It’s gorgeously told, sometimes horrifying and heartbreaking, sometimes even fun at times. It is an incredibly upsetting Holocaust story. I’m fine with the made up part. All historical fiction must do this to some extent. I did appreciate the author’s short note at the end where she does explain what the facts and what was PDF File: Briar Rose: A Novel of the Fairy 4 Tale Series... Read and Download Ebook Briar Rose: A Novel of the Fairy Tale Series... fictionalized. The author’s note was a needed inclusion, though her deviation from what’s known is not 100% impossible, in my opinion. I don’t want to give too much away except I will say that Becca is a lovely character and Gemma is a fascinating character, and the story is beautifully told. This book is definitely for teens and adults and not children as the violence of the Holocaust is told in quite a bit of detail.