S/O Modern Remakes of Classic Novels

[elbenn]

I think there is a lot of value in reading the original classics but I also am interested in modern retellings of classic novels, especially ones that are geared towards young adults. Please share any ones that you know about!

This is a remake of The Great Gatsby set in high school:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1484798422/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[mom2binsd]

When I worked at a high school we had a visiting author series and Sharon Draper was awesome. Her modern take on Romeo and Juliet, Romiet and Julio was a great read. I also loved the book by Draper, Forged by Fire.

[bisous]

Clueless of course! It is Emma by Jane Austen. :) Ten Things I Hate About You is Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare (I haven't read the original of this one so I don't know how close it is...) This is fun!

[sariana]

There is a new version of West Side Story coming at the end of the year. That’s Romeo and Juliet.

[Kestrel]

League of Extraordinary Gentleman. Has pieces of: Allan Quartermain, Captain Nemo and the Nautilus from 20,000 leagues Under the Sea, Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde, Rodney Skinner (Invisible Man), Dorian Gray, Tom Sawyer, Mina Harker (female vampire made by Dracula)...

[elbenn]

These are books? I thought most of the suggestions in this thread are just movies.

[lizzywednesday]

...Ten Things I Hate About You is Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare (I haven't read the original of this one so I don't know how close it is...) This is fun!

It's extremely close!

[lizzywednesday]

These are books? I thought most of the suggestions in this thread are just movies.

Nope, looks like there are a lot of movie suggestions in the thread, but they're good examples of what happens when stories are absorbed through "cultural osmosis" - they become part of the pop-culture canon again!

[lizzywednesday]

Not sure what, exactly, you're looking for OP, but I've read retellings myself - sometimes, I seek them out; other times, I have them recommended to me. When they're done well, they're glorious, but it's a hard thing to do!

The Hogarth Shakespeare project retold 9 of Shakespeare's plays as novels; I've only read Margaret Atwood's Hag-Seed, which retells The Tempest (if I had to pick one Shakespeare play as my favorite, this is the one that ties Hamlet every time), but I have the others on my TBR.

I just bought the eBook of Pride, Prejudice and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev (https://sonalidev.com/books/), who's also written Recipe for Persuasion, and Incense and Sensibility, which retell Jane Austen.

Gail Carson Levine retells fairy tales very well, as does Shannon Hale (Books of Bayern (https://shannonhale.com/books/bayern) series; first one is The Goose Girl) ... and I also recommend retold fairy tales by Tanith Lee, Jane Yolen, Rainbow Rowell, and Neil Gaiman. One of my favorite collections is Beyond the Woods: Fairy Tales Retold (https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Woods-Fairy-Tales-Retold/dp/1597808385/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=), edited by Paula Guran.

The Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein is a mid-90s take on Frankenstein, which I haven't re-read in years (no idea where my copy is) but I loved it at the time.

[bisous]

These are books? I thought most of the suggestions in this thread are just movies.

Oh! You wanted books. Whoops! I'll read closer next time. I do recommend the Shannon Hale books. Otherwise I'm not much help!

[klwa]

There's a graphic novel called Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BDG7Z9Z/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1) that's a modern retelling of the original (first half of most modern copies) Little Women.

The same company apparently has one for The Secret Garden (https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Garden-81st-Street-Retelling-ebook/dp/B08RYQQ961/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=classic+graphic+remix&qid=1622198675&s=digital-text&sr=1-2), too, although I haven't seen that one in stores.

And not quite the same, but a "set in the future" version of Cinderella is Cinder (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005KJJ4F8/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1). The other books in that series go through Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Snow White.

[elbenn]

There's a graphic novel called Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BDG7Z9Z/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1) that's a modern retelling of the original (first half of most modern copies) Little Women.

The same company apparently has one for The Secret Garden (https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Garden-81st-Street-Retelling-ebook/dp/B08RYQQ961/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=classic+graphic+remix&qid=1622198675&s=digital-text&sr=1-2), too, although I haven't seen that one in stores.

And not quite the same, but a "set in the future" version of Cinderella is Cinder (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005KJJ4F8/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1). The other books in that series go through Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Snow White.

I will check these out!

[elbenn]

Not sure what, exactly, you're looking for OP, but I've read retellings myself - sometimes, I seek them out; other times, I have them recommended to me. When they're done well, they're glorious, but it's a hard thing to do!


I am really just looking for books that retell famous classic novels in a setting that kids would be interested in reading. DS1 read Jake, Reinvented (linked in first post) and enjoyed it, but I doubt he would have been interested in reading The Great Gatsby (I love this book, btw, and I know many kids would enjoy it). But now if he has to read The Great Gatsby in school, he will have a frame of reference to the story. I figure that there might be a lot of updated novels (similar to Clueless and Emma but in book form).

[lizzywednesday]

I will check these out!

The series is collectively known as The Lunar Chronicles and the author is Marissa Meyer. I've heard good things, but haven't yet picked them up.

[dogmom]

Most of the ones I know are based off of myths or older classics:
Beowulf-Michael Crichton Eaters of the Dead (made a fun movie of it called Thirteenth Warrior)
Song of Achilles and Circe are myth based and very good
Wicked, was a book before the musical
A Thousand Acres (King Lear)
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (Hamlet) also a great movie
On Beauty by Zadie Smith (Howard’s End)
I also think there are like five based on Jane Austen’s books, mostly Pride and Prejudice. But at don’t like Austen, so a I haven’t read any.
Tons of riffs on Dracula, Frankenstein, Canterbury Tales and the Decameron.

[citymama]

For 9-12 year olds, I love the "Red" "Grump" Rump" books by Liesl Shurtliff that are back stories to classic fairy tales.

"Wicked" is a retelling of the Wizard of Oz (and there's a book before the musical!)
Bridget Jones Diary is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice
Ayesha at Last is a Pakistani retelling of Pride and Prejudice my teen absolutely loved
The Hours by Michael Cunningham - retelling of Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway
Meg & Jo - retelling of Little Women
His Dark Materials trilogy by Pullman is based on Paradise Lost
Tiger Lily is a retelling of Peter Pan

[klwa]

Oh, there's also Enchantment by Orson Scott Card which is a mash up of Sleeping Beauty and the Baba Yaga stories.

[citymama]

Oh, there's also Enchantment by Orson Scott Card which is a mash up of Sleeping Beauty and the Baba Yaga stories.
What ages is this one for?

[klwa]

What ages is this one for?

I'd say 12+ for Enchantment. There is some discussion of sex in it, although it is within marriage. Some discussion of circumcision and a few other things as well. (There's a time travel element to it, which makes the circumcision *questionable*, which is why it's a plot point.)

[lizzywednesday]

...

"Wicked" is a retelling of the Wizard of Oz (and there's a book before the musical!)
...

Wicked is one of my favorite novels; Gregory Maguire's takes on fairy tales are kind of awesome. But I do warn OP that they're adult novels, so I'd pre-read before turning over to a middle schooler to see if there's anything in them you might find complicated or that needs to be discussed w/r/t your family's values.

There are more novels set in Maguire's version of Oz, but I've only read Son of a Witch. I don't think I "got" it at the time & might be due for a reread.

Since we're talking about Gregory Maguire, I also recommend Confessions of An Ugly Stepsister, which was his debut novel. It's a retelling of "Cinderella" set in the Netherlands during the "Tulip Mania." De-centering Cinderella from "her" story is a really interesting premise!

He also retold "Snow White" as Mirror, Mirror, but it's so intensely surreal I struggled with it. I went into it expecting something a lot more straightforward and I got ... DalÃ*.

[lizzywednesday]

...
Song of Achilles and Circe are myth based and very good
...

The author's Madeline Miller; I read Circe last summer and itched to mark up a paper copy. It's an extremely interesting retelling!

[lizzywednesday]

This piece from BookRiot has 5 YA Retellings/"Feels-Like's" of Classic Novels (https://bookriot.com/ya-books-like-classic-books)