Red Caps: New Fairy Tales for Out of the Ordinary Readers

by Steve Berman

Overview

Red Caps might be a rock band. Or they might be something more sinister, a fey source of sounds that are but the backdrop to thrills and misadventures. These thirteen stories provide readers jaded with the traditional, Old World fairy tales and tempts them with new stories that will engage bored readers from their suburban ennui. Closets are waiting to be explored. Escape from work camp leads to a dangerous encounter on a wet road. That high school year book is magical and might be mocking you...or helping you find love. And isn't love one of the central premises of the fairy tale? These teenage boys and girls need not fear that their love has no worth, because Steve Berman has written for them princesses who love maidens and adorkable students who have wondrous and smart boyfriends. Readers can be assured that, if the tale does not end happy, it ends most memorably.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781590212820
Publisher:	Lethe Press
Publication date:	02/14/2014
Pages:	214
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.49(d)
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

Table of Contents

"The Harvestbuck"
"Most Likely"
"Cruel Movember"
"Thimbleriggery and Fledglings"
"Bittersweet"
"All Smiles"
"Persimmon, Teeth, and Boys"
"Gomorrahs of the Deep"
"A Calenture of the Jungle"
"Three on a Match"
"Steeped in Debts to the Chimney-Pots"
"Worse Than Alligators"
"Only Lost Boys Are Found"

Editorial Reviews

"Stylish and compelling, this will find an audience with many a teen, gay, straight, or those that refuse to be labeled." - Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"The positivity that runs throughout the book, even in stories that end on gruesome or eerie notes, is the best part: the sense of 'coming out' in many of these pieces is also a sort of coming to life, or a coming into the self. The undercurrent of acceptance despite the odds is pleasant and heart-warming. These are stories about kids finding out what it means to be themselves, and how to be with other people." - Brit Mandelo for Tor.com

"Do you know what I love about Steve Berman's young adult stories? His characters always come across as young adults, neither too young nor too old. And, whether his short stories are strictly contemporary, speculative fiction or fairy tales, the core of the queer themes have weight and meaning, and there's always a sense of fun to be found in them--creepy, adventurous, romantic, weird, fun. Their endings vary from the happy to the memorable, to the twisty weird, but as a whole they usually have a positive message." - Impressions of a Reader

"There is variety and spice and romance and light and dark in these pages, a most satisfying mélange." - Prism Book Alliance

"Berman's Vintage: A Ghost Story (2008) was a finalist for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy; he brings the same fertile imagination that he employed in that story to many of the entries here." - Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2014-02-21
The stories in this collection track a philosophical imp who harvests teeth, a strange creature from the New Jersey Pinelands, a magical yearbook and something sinister in the sewer. Cecil is an African-American gay teen conflicted about his identity. After a fight at school between another gay youth and a homophobic bully in which the gay lad loses a tooth that Cecil picks up, a tooth sprite shows up in Cecil's bedroom. He helps Cecil to understand both himself and people's need to define everything through words. Jameson is a gay youth whose boyfriend sees something down the sewer, something that may be related to an old urban legend. Amelia is a young lesbian who feels she may not have an imagination until she meets Stephanie, who spurs her imagination in the most extreme way possible. These are just a few of the characters in these 13 LGBT young-adult stories. Berman's Vintage: A Ghost Story (2008) was a finalist for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy; he brings the same fertile imagination that he employed in that story to many of the entries here. The characters are all gay teenagers. Except for a few, most are happy and secure with themselves and are confident young people, either with a loving partner or seeking one. Thus, like many classic fairy tales, these stories star strong men and women who seek love and happiness in an uncertain world and must overcome obstacles (a fire-breathing dragon or magical yearbook) to find them. The collection shines when it mixes the commonplace with fantasy; without the flash of the unusual, as in "All Smiles" and "Cruel Movember," the plots fall flat. Stories that abandon the modern aspect completely, such as "Thimbleriggery and Fledglings," seem forced in their use of imagery and plot. Several tales set in the modern day, such as the quiet, subtle "Three On A Match," pulse with the excitement and surprise of the best fairy tales. An LGBT fantasy-tinged story collection that, despite a few stumbles, delights and entertains.

Kirkus Reviews