Description of the Book:

A collection of 15 fairy tales of Grimm Brothers retold in form of poems/ballads in Grimms’ Tales of Blessings and Curse — In Verse, takes its readers on journeys: sweet & sour and near & far. Rhyming words, music, melody, harmony and tune, and illustrations add enjoyment, entertainment and fun to, at times, discouraging chore of learning how to read. Woven around enchanted castles & humble huts, deep & dark forests, cunning wolves & innocent lambs, and a host of other extraordinary characters & settings, the author retells the evergreen fairy tales in a new fashion by adding rhyme scheme & music & melody for children & adults, both. The deliberate use of new & repetitive rhyming words in the book shall help children to learn about sounds and language construction at a faster pace because the initial learning skills of children relate to listening & speaking rather than reading & writing. They shall be able to spot words that share common sounds & common alphabets. They will not only come across a rhythm of language but also learn intonation when they would hear these stories being narrated in modulating voices of their parents/grandparents & teachers. The frequent use of some rhyming words & themes in these fairy tales would surely help the kids to acquire the ability to foresee the rhyming words and also make some guesses about the plot of the stories. Since this book requires guided reading for children below seven-eight years of age, the adults will surely be transported into the universe of imagination and enjoy the magical world of palaces, long hair, fair skins, princes and princesses. It will charm their minds because what is read in childhood is not lost with years. For some time, they shall forget the sordid reality of the contemporary world and re-experience their joyful, energetic, adventurous, bright and creative childhood.

 Description of the author:

Dr Sumneet Kaur Pahwa, an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, by profession, admires Nature and thinks that Nature is a soul mate for any human. Sumneet believes that her fondness to transport her readers, both young and adults, to spaces and locations where protagonists are bewitched, the meadows are untamed yet plush and most importantly chivalry, honesty, loyalty, friendship and love are alive, prompted her to compile the present volume, Grimms’ Tales of Blessings and Curse — In Verse ; a third in a row. Sumneet authored a Coffee Table Book, Amritsar & Guru Nanak Dev University: The Contours of Inheritance (2019) for her University and translated a Punjabi novel into English, The Collateral Minds (2020). She has been writing creative fiction for international anthologies. Her short stories, “I Am Not An Alien” and “My Charred Daughter”, addressing societal concerns have recently been published internationally. Her latest poem, “Thank God, She Loves Me Still,” narrates the chronicle of love of a mask for his owner.