YA Mythology/ Fairy Tale

Flinn, Alex	Beastly Kyle Kingsbury had it all; good looks, famous father, lots of money, status. He was royalty in his prestigious, Manhatten private school. He was also a cruel snob with little patience and a very low opinion of anyone who was not beautiful and rich. When he crossed Goth girl, Kendra, by inviting her to the end-of-year dance and humiliating her, she exacted her revenge by turning him into a beast, as ugly on the outside as he was on the inside. Kendra was a witch- yes a witch living in New York City. Because Kyle showed one small kindness at the dance, Kendra worked in an "escape" clause: if Kyle could get someone to love him and kiss him, the curse would be reversed. Excellent, contemporary retelling of a favorite fairy tale.
Lester, Julius	Cupid: A Tale of Love and Desire Julius Lester presents a fairly straightforward retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth but in his role of playful storyteller, adds a layer of humor with his opinions, asides and arguments with the story. He also introduces some lesser known gods. Psyche is the third daughter of a king who is so beautiful that the people of her father's kingdom believe that her beauty rivals Venus' and have been neglecting to make offerings in her temple. Venus, enraged at this affront to her beauty sends her son, Cupid, to cause Psyche to fall in love with a donkey by shooting her with one of his arrows. Cupid falls in love with her and conspires with the other gods and the four winds to make her his wife and conceal this fact from his mother.
Napoli, Donna Jo	The Great God Pan This is a retelling of the myth of Pan, half-man, half-goat son of Hermes and the nymph, Dryope. Pan is a merry creature, god of nature and carefree. All of that changes when he falls in love with a human girl, Iphigenia, daughter of Helen.
Napoli, Donna Jo	Beast A retelling of Beauty and the Beast from the Beast's perspective. This story serves as a prequel of sorts, an explanation of how the Beast came to be. Prince Orasmyn is a Muslim prince. He violates a rule when he helps a servant and is turned into a lion on the day his father, the king is setting off on a lion hunt. He makes his way out of Persia into Europe, settling finally in an abandoned castle in France.
Napoli, Donna Jo	Breath Napoli retells the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin in a most interesting and fascinating way. The year is 1284, the story opens with the piper's meeting with Salz, a farmer's son, who is sickly, in the woods outside of Hamelin. Salz is drawn irresistibly by the piper's music as are most of the animals within hearing. The two have a conversation where they trade insults and challenges and learn much about each other. Salz learns that the piper took a wrong turn on his journey to Hanover from Bremen. He sets the piper on his way and returns to gathering herbs for his grandmother. From then on, we learn the story of the town of Hamelin, the rat invasion and the terrible sickness which grips the town.
Napoli, Donna Jo	Crazy Jack We all know the story of Jack and the Beanstalk and how that feeble-brained numb skull Jack traded his mother's cow for "magic" beans instead of money. But did you ever wonder why Jack didn't have a father or why Jack may not have been such a bright boy?
Napoli, Donna Jo	Zel Napoli has a knack for getting us to see another side to a fairy tale or the wicked character in the tale (see Spinners and Magic Circle). In Zel, I didn't quite develop the same amount of sympathy, but found this retelling of Rapunzel quite satisfying. Napoli is a real master of this genre.
Napoli, Donna Jo & Richard Tchen	Spinners I always had a bunch of questions about the Rumplestiltskin fairy tale; like why would the miller make such crazy statements about his only daughter and what would make Rumplestiltskin help the girl? Napoli begins her story fifteen years before the events of the fairy tale you and I know to tell the story of a young tailor and the woman he wished to marry. Fascinating story.
Shusterman, Neal	Dread Locks (Dark Fusion #1) Shusterman updates the myth of Medusa and blends it with the story of the three bears in this page-turner. Fourteen-year-old Parker Baer admits that he is rich and spoiled rotten. He is bored to death of having everything and wonders what he's getting for his birthday. The next day, he sees seventeen moving vans pull up to the mansion next door and wonders who is moving in. After snooping around the property and seeing no one, he returns home to find that someone has been eating his sister's cereal, someone has been sitting in his father's over-priced ergonomically designed chair and someone is sleeping in Parker's bed. Tara is enigmatic, beautiful and irresistible. She has unusual hair which seems alive and wears mirrored sunglasses, even at night. Parker senses a power that he at once fears and is attracted to. As students at his exclusive private school begin to develop strange complexions, eating habits and a peculiar lethargy, Parker begins to realize that Tara is the cause.
Shusterman, Neal	Red Rider's Hood (Dark Fusion #2) Sixteen-year-old Red is driving his prized blood red Mustang to his grandma's house with some "bread," money. When he gets there, she is tied up in the basement and he is mugged by the Wolves, the local gang known for terrorizing the hood, who also steal his beloved ride. This tale blends the story of Red Riding Hood and werewolf legends as Red teams up with a werewolf hunter to bring down the Wolves. It is a quick read because the suspense makes you reluctant to put the book down.
Shusterman, Neal	Duckling Ugly(Dark Fusion #3) This is probably my favorite of the Dark Fusion series so far, although I did like them all. Cara is is hideously ugly and while she receives unconditional love from her family, especially her mother, at school, her classmates are exceptionally cruel, especial the beautiful queen bee, Marisol. She is a talented artist and phenomenal speller, but she can't even enjoy the fruits of her spelling ability as she is publicly humiliated at a spelling bee through a computer glitch. She makes friends with a wise and wonderful blind, old woman who cultivates plants and then with a brutally honest young man from her high school. Just as she is beginning to blossom with the friendship of these two, she is improbably asked to the homecoming dance by the school's alpha male. She senses a joke here along the lines of Carrie, but is completely thrown by her parents' encouragement to go. This story mixes the familiar tale of The Ugly Duckling with the legend of The Fountain of Youth in interesting and creepy ways and I highly recommend the story and the rest of the series as well.
Spinner, Stephanie	Quiver Atalanta did not have a very easy life. She was abandoned by her father, King Iasus, as an infant and would have been eaten by wild animals had not the goddess Artemis intervened. Raised by a loving foster father, she became a skilled huntress and devoted herself to Artemis. When her father needed an heir, she was summoned home where he attempted to marry her off. Wanting to remain virginal in honor of Artemis, she stated that she would marry the man who could beat her in a foot-race and if he lost, his life would be forfeit. To her horror, there were many entrants, all of whom lost until the gods intervened.
Spinner, Stephanie	Quicksilver Hermes' talents are multifaceted and diverse. He is Zeus' messenger, escort of the dead to the Underworld, a gifted musician, eternal optimist, cheerful gossip, merry prankster and perhaps the only god to experience guilt according to Spinner's entertaining and readable tale. It is told by Hermes in five parts as he retrieves Kore, aka Persephone, from the Underworld, aides Perseus, tames Pegasus, makes Paris a beauty contest judge, avoids the Trojan War, rescues Odysseus and falls in love with Calypso.
Viguie, Debbie	Scarlet Moon This retelling of Little Red Riding Hood imagines Little Red as Ruth, daughter of a blacksmith and beloved sister of Stephen. As a young girl, a wolf attacked her while walking in the woods with her brother, whose quick thinking with a dagger saved her life with help from her grandmother's healing powers. She is pushed by her brother to become strong and walk again because he is leaving the village to fight for the Duke in the Crusades. Fast forward nine years, Ruth became strong, strong enough to take Stephen's place at the smithy. She still fears the woods, but travels through it frequently to visit her beloved grandmother, who had been banished many years before Ruth's birth because the villagers accused her of witchcraft. Ruth and William, son of the Duke, meet when William's horse loses a shoe and needs a new one. They are inexplicably drawn to one another and Ruth wonders where she has seen William's green eyes before.
Yancey, Rick	The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp Fifteen-year-old Alfred Kropp is an overweight misfit. He is a lonely orphan who misses his mother who died when he was twelve, never knew his father, and is now living, after living in a series of foster homes, with an uncle he never knew he had. His uncle convinces him (blackmails him, actually, by threatening to send him back into foster care) into participating in what his uncle calls a "get rich quick" scheme but what Alfred perceptively calls a crime. They steal "Excalibur," the sword of the legendary King Arthur and this act sets in motion a series of events that could end the world as we know it. Action-packed and filled with humor, this book is a page-turner. Readers already familiar with Arthurian legend will love this new twist. Those who enjoy Artemis Fowl and Alex Rider will enjoy this one and anticipate the sequel.
Yancey, Rick	Alfred Kropp: The Seal of Solomon Alfred is back living in a foster home and miserable despite having saved the world. The problem is that no one knows this as he is sworn to secrecy and besides, no one would believe him anyway. Now he is the focus of a new activitiy at school known as "Kropping," in which he is routinely humiliated. After he finds himself a multimillionaire (thanks to his now deceased father, Samson) and his foster father is intent on adopting him, Alfred decides to run away. Unfortunately, before he can put that plan into effect, Mike Arnold kidnaps him. It seems that Arnold has stolen the seal of Solomon and is planning... to take over the world. Yancey delivers another rock-em, sock-em page turner just in time for summer reading.