Snow White In New York by Fiona French
What if Snow White was not a princess but a jazz singer, and instead of living in a castle in the forest she made her home in Manhattan during the 1920s? Such is the premise of Fiona French’s wickedly original take on this classic fairy tale.
Snow White is a young girl living in New York City during the jazz age when her widowed father marries a Manhattan society woman whose name often appears in the city’s newspaper, The New York Mirror. What nobody knows about Snow White’s new stepmom is that she is actually Queen of the Underworld and when Snow White starts to become popular, her stepmother tells one of her henchman to get rid of the girl. The henchmen, though, can’t do it and, instead, leaves Snow White alone in the middle of The Big Apple. Snow White wanders into a nightclub where she meets seven jazz musicians who urge her to become their singer. During one of her performances she is noticed by a local reporter, who knows right away she is going to become a star. As Snow White’s popularity increases, her stepmother gets jealous and decides to do away with Snow White by giving her a cocktail that includes a poisoned cherry.
Don’t let the fact that “Snow White in New York” is a picture book fool you. Accompanying French’s storyline twist are phenomenal illustrations done in Art Deco style that adults of every age are sure to appreciate.