Snoring Beauty (Harper, 2014) by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen and illustrated by Jane Manning is a fairy tale retelling done right. And it’s even in rhyme.
The main character is Mouse who is “dreaming of his dearie” on the night before his wedding day. As his eyes are closing, he’s kept awake by Sleeping Beauty’s terrible snoring. He knows “someday a prince will come to break this spell,” but meanwhile how will he get his sleep? When Mouse rises to close the shutters he sees a prince and thinks he’ll get to “sleep within the hour!” Of course, it’s not that easy when the prince hears the snoring.
I loved the humor both in text and illustrations. The rhyme isn’t always exact as there’s some near rhyme, but it doesn’t stop my enjoyment.
Author Sudpita Bardhan-Quallen talks about how her writing journey in her bio. She’s written many humorous picture books and nonfiction as well.
Illustrator Jane Manning has worked for a number of publishers including HarperCollins, Scholastic, and Houghton Mifflin.
What I find interesting is that there’s another picture book of the same title:
Bruce Hale‘s Snoring Beauty about a princess turned into a dragon. It came out in 2008 from HMH Books for Young Readers and is illustrated by Howard Fine. The book description makes it sound hilarious. And that cover illustration of the dragon is great.
Another interesting fact is that Howard Fine has illustrated another of Sudipta’s books: Hampire!.