Review by Sietse Hagen

Note: This review is based on the original Dutch text, De Meisjes: Zeven Sprookjes by Annet Schaap. A translation by Laura Watkinson was published in English by Pushkin Children’s Books, under the title Girls.

Seven girls, seven fairy tales, seven feminist retellings filled with Dutch culture. De Meisjes is an empowering YA short story collection that introduces its young readers to many horrifying realities.  

Seven famous fairy tales are retold through Schaap’s lens of modern horrors and feminist tone. The first story is called ‘Meneer Pelsteel’ or, translated, ‘Mr Stiltskin’ and is a retelling of ‘Rumpelstiltskin’. This story is perhaps the closest retelling of the original fairy tale in this collection. Only the ending differs significantly. When the girl guesses Mr. Stiltskin’s name correctly, she asks him whether he knows her name. Stumped, Mr. Stiltskin reveals that he does not know her name, after which the king, the girl’s husband, even admits that he has never asked her name. Schaap brings to attention the fact that the girl never receives a name and is only used as a tool to bring about the message of the original fairy tale. This immediately sets the tone for the rest of the stories as Schaap reveals her feminist tendencies to reveal the disempowerment women face in fairy tales.  

Other stories take on a more modern setting. While the importance of feminism remains throughout these stories, other messages and critiques about the modern world come into play. In ‘Wolf’, a retelling of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, the girl is depressed and seems suicidal while the wolf is locked up in a nature reserve surrounded by fences to increase the variety of wildlife in Dutch nature, which Schaap heavily critiques. In ‘Koekjes’ or ‘Biscuits’, Schaap dresses the story of ‘Hansel and Gretel’ in a modern coat, where two sisters are forced to run away from home after their father stays at work for weeks to be able to earn a living, because of which they do not get any food. While searching for food, they encounter two ladies who use the girls as advertisements for their cookie business against their will. This reveals a critique of capitalism within the father’s inability to earn a living for himself and his children as a single father, with the two women showing the other side in abusing children for monetary gain.  

All seven stories reveal strong opinions about the issues of the modern world while fighting for more empowerment for the fairy tale girls. Moreover, this book contains many elements of Dutch culture from typical Dutch snacks like roze koek to familiar Dutch settings featuring windmills. Filled with powerful words and stunning, but grim illustrations drawn by Schaap herself, it is no wonder that this book was awarded the ‘Bronzen Griffel’ in 2022, a prestigious Dutch literary prize awarded to the best children’s book every year. 

Available in both Dutch and in English, where it is simply called Girls and is translated by Laura Watkinson, this book is a wonderful, critical, and empowering book for Young Adults from all over the world to read.

Girls
Written by Annet Schaap, translated by Laura Watkinson
2023, Pushkin Children’s Books
ISBN: 9781782693789

Sietse Hagen has recently graduated with a Research Master’s degree focusing on children’s literature from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He specialises in horror, trauma, and postcolonialism in children’s literature. He has been awarded the MLA Student Essay Prize in 2022 and has been published numerous times. His most recent publication ‘Reading the Fortune Seeker: (Dis)Empowerment in the Dutch Refugee Experience’ was written in collaboration with Dr. Vera Veldhuizen and published by Bookbird. Currently, Sietse is searching for a PhD position to further cultivate his academic abilities. 

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GLLI’s 2024 International YA Literature Month has been curated by Dr Emily Corbett. She is a lecturer in children’s and young adult literature at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she leads the MA Children’s Literature: Theoretical Approaches to Children’s and Young Adult Literature programme. Her research focuses on the growth and development of YA from literary, publishing, and cultural perspectives. She is also General Editor of The International Journal of Young Adult Literature and was founding Vice President of the YA Studies Association. Her monograph, In Transition: Young Adult Literature and Transgender Representation (2024), has just been published by the University Press of Mississippi. You can find her contact details on her institutional website and connect with her on Twitter and Instagram via @DrEmilyCorbett.

Opinions expressed in posts on this site are the individual author’s and are not indicative of the views of Global Literature in Libraries Initiative.