昔話法廷

by 今井雅子

これから不思議な裁判が始まろうとしている。被告人は、オオカミを殺してしまった『三匹のこぶた』の末のこぶた。おばあさんの敵討ちのためにタヌキを殺そうとした『カチカチ山』のウサギ。そして、嫉妬をつのらせて美しい姫を毒殺しようとした『白雪姫』の王妃。昔話の登場人物たちを、現代の法律で裁く「昔話法廷」開廷!

Genres: Japanese Literature

127 pages, 単行本

Published August 1, 2016

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is very interesting. I like the creativity of author who came up with this story. This book is not just a normal fantasy story. It is a story with mixture of fairy tale stories and a reality. This book puts place in court, judging whether a character from fairy tale story is guilty or not. The interesting part is, the character being judged is not always the bad character. For example in 3 little pigs, it is not a wolf. It is a pig that is putted in court. Did they planned to kill wolf, or did they harm wolf to protect themselves? Even if you don’t know the fairy tale story, you will start to understand it as you read. I didn’t like the part that at the end of each story they don’t give a final answer of whether they should be putted in jail or not. But by not giving the final judgement, it leaves a reader thinking. I hope there is a English version of this book so I can learn about a words used in courts. I recommend this book to anyone above elementary school. Everyone has seen or listened a story of fairy tales. But although we enjoy reading those story when we are young, we don’t enjoy it after reading it many times right? So I think this book is a continue, or the next level story of fairy tale stories.

[Erika · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this will make a great textbook for a classroom discussion in elementary/middle schools.
Is the pig in the brisk house guilty of homicide for killing the wolf? Or should be set free because it was self-defense?
Is the rabbit in the "Kachi-Kachi Mountain" guilty of the attempted murder of the tanuki, or should be on probation since he's admitted that he wanted to kill the tanuki as revenge?
Is the queen really guilty of the attempted murder of Snow White, or is she innocent like she claims since Snow White only saw an old woman and not the queen?

However, since there is no conclusion for each of the episodes, nor there are any interesting twists (like some of the fairytale retellings tend to have) I don't think this book is that fun to read.
(it's not a complaint, but I wonder why all the "main characters" i.e. the person whose point of view is used, are all women.)