Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Adapted by Lisa Ann Marsoli. Published 1993.

This book was written after the Walt Disney version of Snow White. It starts with the evil stepmother queen wanting to be the most beautiful in the land, but worries that her step daughter will overtake that. Snow White works as a servant a meets a handsome prince. The queen though is told by her mirror that Snow White is more beautiful and orders her huntsman to kill her. The huntsman takes her to the woods but cannot do it and sends Snow White away and lies to the queen. Snow white finds refuge in a little cottage who belongs to the seven dwarfs. They come home and once they find out who she is they welcome her. Meanwhile the queen finds out the Snow White is still alive, so she turn herself into a hag to disguise herself from Snow White. The dwarfs go off to work and Snow White is visited by the queen and given a poison apple which she takes a bite and goes into a deep sleep. The dwarfs come to rescue her and the queen dies but Snow White doesn't wake up. The dwarfs put her in a glass coffin and the prince finds her and kisses her and she wakes. They go off happily to the castle and are married. 

I chose this book because Snow White was my favorite princess as a child. I thought it would be interesting to look at it in a new light. I noticed that the characters were all white. So the people in power are white, the queen, prince and Snow White if you want to count her. Snow White having fair white skin is described as being the fairest in the land. So we can attribute a mixed message that beauty equals white skin. The queen has the consequence of her vanity and trying to kill Snow White, she ends up dead from falling off the cliff. Also she has to turn herself ugly to try to kill Snow White so it is kind of hypocritical. You also get the message of beauty is not alway happiness on the queen's part. But Snow White does get the happy ending and she is the most beautiful, but she is also kind. The dwarfs have silly names that fit their character, which can be attributed to short people being silly. Which could be offensive. They are also the ones who go out and work and Snow White stays home and cooks and cleans, some gender roles there.

All in all, the book gives off a good message of don't be obsessed with looks, and that kindness pays off. I don't see anything overtly wrong with this book and I would recommend it and versions like it. Other cultures are not really represented which is unfortunate, but their aren't too many characters so it is kind of hard. This is kind of considered a classic, a very dumbed down version of it but still. You can see some of that old time stereotypes shining through still.