Princess Sophie and the Six Swans by Kim Jacobs is a retelling of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale The Six Swans. This version is told from Princess Sophie’s point of view, giving depth to the heroine’s character by revealing her thoughts and emotions.  I’ll mention a few differences between the book and the Grimm’s tale, though the book keeps the tale’s basic plot.*

The story starts with Sophie and her mother feeding the royal swans, and Mother tells her, “You are loyal and strong like these noble birds, but sometimes you hide your gentle heart.” She tells the princess to be both strong and kind, foreshadowing the challenge Sophie will face.

Sophie’s closeness to her six brothers is shown in the following scene. “My brothers and I climbed and chased, tumbled and teased. The halls rang with our laughter.” But happiness is shattered when their mother dies and their father grows distant. Father remarries, and Sophie deeply resents it and starts backbiting against her stepmother. Father sees the stepmother’s wrath in her eyes in response to Sophie’s griping, and like in the original story, he hides Sophie and her brothers in another castle. The stepmother finds the hiding spot, though the book doesn’t tell us how. (Unlike the original version)

As revenge against Sophie for her backbiting, the stepmother—who is a witch—turns the brothers into swans and tells Sophie that to break the spell, she must make six shirts out of the thorny thistle—”sharp and cruel like your words.” And to not speak while she makes them.

Sophie sets about her task, fighting through the thistle stinging her fingers. A king hears of her and takes her into his castle. She initially feels upset that the king took her in against her will, but he provides her with a spinning wheel, sings to her, and even brings thistles for her work. They wed and have a baby, but the stepmother steals the baby away. In Grimm’s version, Sophie is accused of murdering her children, but in this child-friendly version, it simply says that the people think her child’s disappearance is a trick of hers. She stands on trial for witchcraft, but her brothers appear, and she throws them the shirts. They become human again, she can speak again, and because the spell is tied to the stepmother, the stepmother dies with it.

Is Sophie “strong and kind?” The way she endures suffering to save her brothers would involve a lot of strength and kindness. As far as being kind with her tongue goes, she keeps herself from saying awful things to the king, because of her vow of silence. She blesses him in the end, as he proves himself to be a good guy—especially as he would go through the sharp pain of thistles to help her. Here’s a little more…

Princess Sophie, the spirited young heroine of this adapted tale from the Brothers Grimm, finds herself faced with an incredible challenge and some lessons to learn. She had forgotten her departed mother’s warning to temper loyalty and strength with a compassionate heart. Antagonized by Sophie’s resentful words, her powerful new stepmother turns Sophie’s six brothers into swans and sets her the task of saving them.

Will Sophie succeed in helping her brothers? Can she spin six shirts made from the thorny thistle, while never speaking a word, even in her defense? And what will happen when King Yoren captures Sophie and takes her prisoner? Featuring stunning artwork by renowned illustrator Kim Jacobs, her retelling of this classic Brothers Grimm fairytale also contains an author’s note with fascinating details on family heraldry and mute swans.

Awesome bonuses to this book are the pastel colors, giving the illustrations an ethereal, fairy-tale feel. Additionally, you can see images of swans throughout the pages, like toy swans hanging over a baby basket, a boat carved into a swan, and even a swan figurine holding a pincushion.

If you’re looking for a not-so-scary version of this Grimm’s tale, I recommend this book. I would add this to your princess story collection or even your bedtime story collection.

*For an original version of the tale, you can check out the following link: https://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm049.html

Click to tweet: Friday Fiction: Princess Sophie and the Six Swans. Another children’s book review by K.A. Ramstad. #kidsbooks #fairytales