Tag Archives: Alice in Wonderland

Fairy Tales Are Still Popular

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As I’m browsing the internet and books for certain literary agents to send a query letter to, I’ve come to notice, fairy tales are still popular, though only those with a new spin to them. Some literary agents are looking for newer versions of fairy tales, called fairy tale re-tellings. Imagine telling the story of Cinderella, though in a different way. The book I’m currently reading is called Cinder, by Marissa Meyer. It’s a Cinderella story, but it is so completely different that it actually captivates you into reading it. It has even made the New York Times Bestseller list.

Cinder is a sixteen year old mechanic and a cyborg. Yes, a cyborg Cinderella. At first, I thought, nah, I highly doubt I’ll be interested in reading it, but I was wrong. I decided to buy it the other day and am glad I did, it’s a great page turner. The first line even caught my attention: “The screw through Cinder’s ankle had rusted, the engraved cross marks worn to a mangled circle.” It’s hard to find books with an awesome opening line like that. It makes you want to keep reading. I’m sure it’s a book of what our near future may look like – androids and humans living together.

I have read, Mr. Darcy, Vampire. Though it isn’t a fairy tale, it is a re-telling of the Mr. Darcy from Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice. I’m not too big on vampire books. They have to be different than everyone’s stereotypical image and I’ve only found very few that break that image so far. Mr. Darcy, Vampire is actually very different than some of the stereotypes some often have of vampires. It was a good read, if you haven’t read it. I think I’ve even heard of Alice in Zombieland, a re-telling of Alice in Wonderland. A different perspective for all of those who are familiar with the original version of Alice in Wonderland. I haven’t read it, but if you have, indulge me. Is it a good read? Or not worth buying? What other fairy tale re-tellings have you found or heard of? Click here for a list of what other fairy tale re-telling books are out already.

Disney Day Two

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Day Two – We got up early the next morning and stood in line to get into the park. The fun part was riding the monorail to the Magic Kingdom. We ate breakfast inside the park again, mini Belgian waffles with fresh fruit, which was really good.

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ImageWe found our way to the tea cup ride where we met Alice from Wonderland. My daughter was excited and greeted her with cheerful, “Hi Alice!”

They chatted for a few minutes about finding the White Rabbit and then Alice signed my daughter’s autograph book before we went to ride the tea cups. Seeing my baby’s face when the ride started was priceless. She smiled and giggled and shouted “Wee!” the entire time the ride was going. When we got off the White Rabbit was hanging out with Alice and we had to go stand in line again just to meet him.

We continued to ride rides and meet characters, especially her most two favorite characters, Merida and Tinker Bell.

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The best part was the fast passes. My brother-in-law, James, would go get our fast passes while we stood in line for another ride. The fast pass had a time on it where we could go back to that particular ride and cut to the front of the line.

Most of the rides had signs saying how long the wait was. The worst part was how expensive everything was. I knew that it might be expensive before I got there, but Starbucks coffee is considerably cheap compared to coffee at Disney. And $2.50 for a 20oz bottled water and $4 for a small bag of cotton candy? We actually agreed on McD’s for lunch outside of the park, followed by a nap … for us adults. Though the nap was cut short due to an anxious three year old who wanted to go ride more rides.

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On our way back to the park, we rode the Ferry instead of the monorail, then caught the train to the northern part of the park where my daughter and I rode the magic carpet ride. It was similar to the Dumbo ride except there’s a camel that’s spits water. It didn’t matter to my daughter, she was still enjoying herself, until the fireworks started.

We had caught the light show parade, which was beautiful. My daughter pointed out to a few of the floats, shouting their names. It was great to see Pete’s Dragon again. The last time I had seen Pete’s Dragon was … uh, a really long time ago.

After the parade, we met up with my sister and brother-in-law and made our way to Cinderella’s castle. The fireworks pre-show was absolutely amazing! They fly Tinkerbell out to the castle where she tosses some fairy dust onto it and the castle starts to change it’s appearance. My daughter was sitting on top of her uncle James’ shoulders, watching the show. Her face was just priceless that I had tears.

There was a few minutes interlude between the castle show and fireworks, which gave us some time to move closer to the exit. As soon as the fireworks started, everyone stopped moving and stared up to the sky. It was beautiful. My daughter started to get a little fussy as the sound of the fireworks echoed throughout the park. Not a pleasant thing for a child on the spectrum.

All and all, day two was wonderful. I was looking forward to the next day.