Our Blog

[Photo by Elina Krima from Pexels]

This post contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, Quirk Books may earn a commission.

Netflix is really hitting it out of the park with adaptations of young adult novels these days, and it looks like Moxie is no exception. We’re thrilled that Jennifer Mathieu’s incredible book is getting so much attention, and we’re so excited that Amy Poehler is involved! Because zine culture is at the core of Moxie, we wanted to play around with some of our favorite young adult novels – and imagine what they might look like as zines.   

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood from Pexels

This post contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, Quirk Books may earn a commission.

Here at Quirk we’re pretty passionate about the oldies, whether they be pop culture favorites or canon works of the literary world. That’s why we have series like the Pop Classics (adorably illustrated picture books of cult films and TV series like The Karate Kid and Elf), the Quirk Classics (horror takes on literary masterpieces like the New York Times bestseller Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), and Ian Doescher’s Shakespearean takes on Back to the Future, Mean Girls, Clueless, and Star Wars.

There’s something appealing with revisiting what writers and audiences have known to be compelling, but doing so through a new lens that revitalizes one’s love for the original. That’s why for National Old Stuff Day, we’re looking at some of the literary classics and their modern day retellings.

Photo by Julia Volk from Pexels

This post contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, Quirk Books may earn a commission.

It’s National Read Across America Day and even though we’re all stuck at home, books can take us anywhere – truly anywhere. Even though we can’t go on a cross-country road trip right now, our imaginations can still go on vacation. So come with us on a long drive from our HQ in Philadelphia all the way to sunny California. We’ll bring the snacks!

Photo by Natalia Y on Unsplash

This post contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, Quirk Books may earn a commission.

Once upon a time, there was a magical story about a princess, a castle, a spell, and an enemy vanquished. This story was magic not just because there was magic in it, but because it never got old. No matter how many times this story was told, everyone would listen, even though they knew exactly how it would end (happily ever after). That’s what made this story magic…and that magic holds up today.

Fairy tales are some of our oldest shared stories, and even while everyone knows that Cinderella will make it to the ball, they still hold fascination. As time goes by, though, these same stories are adapted and tweaked, keeping the magic alive but bringing them up-to-date to enthrall new audiences. Here are some of our retold faves.

Geekerella by Ashley Poston

Ashely Poston’s charming YA series started with Geekerella, a nerd-culture take on Cinderella, that sees a pumpkin-food-truck worker heading to the sci-fi convention her parents launched, despite her evil stepmother’s plans. From there, the series has just expanded, with both The Princess and The Fangirl and Bookish And the Beast bringing classic fairy stories into this gloriously geeky world.

Buy the book:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books A Million | Bookshop

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

The first book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder catapults the classic fairy tale into a sci-fi future, packed with new planets, androids, cyborgs, and space ships. This series takes on multiple traditional tales (including Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and Rapunzel), but gives them an entirely futuristic twist, rather than the classic historic settings.

Buy the book:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books A Million | Bookshop

Grim

Rather than a re-telling of just one fairy tale, this collection brings together some of the biggest names in YA to re-tell many of the original Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Each of these short stories provides a different take on the classics, some darker, and some more modern, but all worth the read.

Buy the book:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books A Million | Bookshop

Princess Of The Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George

While most new takes on classic fairy tales look at the best-known stories, like Cinderella, Snow White, or Sleeping Beauty, Princess of the Midnight Ball creates a trilogy out of a lesser-known story: the Twelve Dancing Princesses. The first in a trilogy, this novel doesn’t take the story into a whole new time, but does expand on it, making it far more than a simple prince/princess tale. It also provides knitting patterns—because this is a major part of the tale itself.

Buy the book:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books A Million | Bookshop

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

This retelling of the classics was so popular that it has spawned a series and a live-action movie, so most fairy tale fans will probably have heard of it…but there is a reason that this story became so huge. Rather than taking a specific tale, Ella Enchanted plays with the basic framework of classic stories instead. Ella herself lives under a "curse of obedience," and her journey to break it gives this traditional story real depth.

Buy the book:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books A Million | Bookshop

Princesses Behaving Badly by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie

This may not be a retelling in the sense that the other books on this list are, but it is something that may be even better for fans of fairy tales: a look at the real life women that may have inspired them, and a few that deserve their own Disney movies! These historical princesses ruled, fought, spied, and took on the world in their own way—with stories so much better than a prince and a castle to be discovered.

Buy the book:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books A Million | Bookshop

A Long Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan

Finally, another sci-fi take—this time, on Sleeping Beauty. Often, Aurora is a far-from-favorite princess, especially as she spends much of the action asleep! (After all, that’s a key part of the story.) In this novel, though, Rosalinda’s story starts after she is woken up, and while she is woken by a kiss, it’s not to a happy ending with a prince, but to find that over six decades have passed, the world is entirely changed, and she may just be the heir to an empire…

Buy the book:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books A Million | Bookshop

What are your favorite fairy tale retellings? Tweet @quirkbooks and let us know.

Photo by olia danilevich from Pexels

Netflix’s wildly popular Bridgerton series has certainly swept fans of their feet! Adapted from Julia Quinn’s historical romance novels, each new season focuses on the courtships of the eight Bridgerton siblings. Can’t wait that long for more tantalizing family drama? Neither can we, that’s why we created this list of book series where siblings get their very own adventures!

[Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash]

National Library Lovers’ Month may be coming to a close, but it’s never too late to swing by your local library, call for curbside pickup, or log into your Libby/cloudLibrary/hoopla apps and put those tax dollars to good use. Whether you love the feel of a newly applied dust jacket, the swipe of a free and immediate ebook, or the thrill of pressing the play button on your audiobook, libraries have something for everyone. Yes, many even carry video games, hotspots, museum passes, digital streaming services, play kits, and things you would never think of like baking pans.

It’s no wonder so many people love libraries and it’s no surprise all of February is dedicated to those library lovers, but let’s take a moment to focus on some of the younger ones out there, the ones who dream of becoming a librarian and bettering a community, find solace hunched between the bookshelves and the pages of their latest pick, and pursue continual growth and improvement through expanding their world through books. Next time you check in at your library, see if they have one of these middle grade or young adult picks for a great story about the power of libraries.