The New York Timesβbestselling author of Rose Daughter reimagines the classic French fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast.
I was the youngest of three daughters. Our literal-minded mother named us Grace, Hope, and Honour. ... My father still likes to tell the story of how I acquired my odd nickname: I had come to him for further information when I first discovered that our names meant something besides you-come-here. He succeeded in explaining grace and hope, but he had some difficulty trying to make the concept of honour understandable to a five-year-old. ... I said: βHuh! Iβd rather be Beauty.β ...
By the time it was evident that I was going to let the family down by being plain, Iβd been called Beauty for over six years. ... I wasnβt really very fond of my given name, Honour, either ... as if βhonourableβ were the best that could be said of me.
The sistersβ wealthy father loses all his money when his merchant fleet is drowned in a storm, and the family moves to a village far away. Then the old merchant hears what proves to be a false report that one of his ships had made it safe to harbor at last, and on his sad, disappointed way home again he becomes lost deep in the forest and has a terrifying encounter with a fierce Beast, who walks like a man and lives in a castle. The merchantβs life is forfeit, says the Beast, for trespass and the theft of a roseβbut he will spare the old manβs life if he sends one of his daughters: βYour daughter would take no harm from me, nor from anything that lives in my lands.β When Beauty hears this storyβfor her father had picked therose to bring to herβher sense of honor demands that she take up the Beastβs offer, for βcannot a Beast be tamed?β
This βsplendid storyβ by the Newbery Medalβwinning author of The Hero and the Crown has been named an ALA Notable Book and a Phoenix Award Honor Book (Publishers Weekly).