I liked the art more than the retellings of the fairytales, but it was an enjoyable read and great to see more inclusive fairytales. 

It’s worth picking up this book to look through all of the gorgeous photographs. The clothing is intricate and colorful and absolutely stunning;  the designer blended together the traditional fairytale costume elements with modern and traditional elements of clothing in Black culture, which so perfectly captures the spirit of the book. 

The actual writing was the sticking point for me. The writing style wasn’t particularly appealing to me, and I found some of the changes to the stories to be a bit too saccharine. There seemed to be a conscious effort to give the protagonists happy endings, which I understand the value in doing. However, some of the grittiness that’s typically found in fairytales was missing in these reimaginings. It felt like in the effort to not make the characters suffer, the authors also removed all of the interesting conflict from the stories, leaving them feeling a bit hollow. A younger audience might not have the same opinion though, and I imagine this book would be a wonderful addition to young children’s libraries.