The Twelve Dancing Princesses retold and illustrated by Jane Ray (traditional/folk literature)

Jane Ray's adaptation of the the Brother's Grimm fairy tale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, begins similarly to Sanderson's version of the fairy tale. The plot involves a king who has twelve daughters that are locked in their bedroom at night. Yet, in the morning, all twelve daughters shoes are completely worn through. Because buying his daughters' new pairs of shoes every day was becoming too expensive, he declared that the first man to discover his daughters' secret would be able to choose any of the princesses to marry and would rule over the kingdom when he died. However, if the man was not able to solve the puzzle in three days and three nights, he would be banished from the kingdom forever. The enchanting daughters' gave wine to each of the suitors who tried to solve the mystery until they fell asleep so they could discover the secret. One day, a poor wounded soldier offered half of his bread and cheese to an elderly woman who passed by him on the side of the road. To thank him for the food, the old woman tells the soldier not to drink the wine at the castle and gives him an invisible cloak to help him follow the princesses. On the night the soldier stayed in the castle, he pretended to drink the wine and then followed the princesses, who escaped through a door that magically appeared on the wall. Once the princesses passed through three gardens (silver, diamond, and gold), they met twelve princes and crossed a lake to dance inside another castle. After he and the princesses returned to their own castle, the soldier decided to wait two more nights to ensure he was correct about the princesses' secret. On the third day, the soldier told the king his story and showed him a twig from each garden and a golden goblet to prove that he was telling the truth. When the king asked his daughters if the soldier was correct, the eldest daughter admitted that the soldier had outwitted them and discovered their secret. In the end, the soldier decided to marry the eldest daughter and they lived happily ever after.


In my classroom, I would assign a group of students (about 3-4 students) a scene from the book. Then, after writing a script and creating props, I would have the students perform in front of the entire class. Or, if any students felt uncomfortable having their peers watching them perform, I would have the students film their project on a FlipVideo. Then I would coalesce all of the students' clips into a movie, show the movie while the students snacked on popcorn and candy, and then have the students write a movie review to compare it to the Jane Ray's version of the fairy tale.