Of Slippers and Spindles

Cassie and Laura continue our Arabian Nights era with book one in the Once Upon a Time series from Simon Pulse -- The Storyteller's Daughter by Cameron Dokey. There's a bit more chatter up top in this episode than usual, so if you want to get straight to the discussion and bypass Toddler Tales and the history of the Once Upon a Time series, skip to 10:55!Laura and Cassie go off on several tangents during this discussion, but along the way, we do touch on how this novel captures the oral tradition feel inherent to Shahrazad, tricks for behavior that work on toddlers as well as spoiled kings, and how quickly public opinion can change, for better and for worse.Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, Discord, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com 

Cassie and Laura kick off our Arabian Nights era with one of the earliest -- Shadow Spinner by Susan Fletcher. We get into the way she deftly weaves a story presenting complex topics in a way that is accessible for younger readers without talking down to them, how she represents the cycle of resentment and forgiveness, and discuss the ways we did have to stretch our suspension of disbelief once or twice.Trigger warnings for this book include ableism and mentions of child abuse and suicide. Please read and listen responsibly.Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, Discord, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com This episode was edited by Brianna Jean.Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

It's time to bid another farewell to our second (riches to) rags to riches girlie and introduce ourselves to the ultimate storyteller Shahrazad, in any of the many many ways her name has been spelled. Cassie and Matt start us off with our final thoughts on The Goose Girl, including our ideas for how we would like to retell the story ourselves and how easy it is for Cassie to shoehorn Anonymous Penpals into any story. Then Cassie and Laura begin a journey into a new story, 1001 Nights, also known as The Arabian Nights. We talk through the plot of the story and the many questions it brings up, then we reveal the criteria we'll be using and which retellings we'll be talking about throughout the month.Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and these next two weeks only, a chance to win a copy of A Sorceress Comes to Call by T Kingfisher! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, Discord, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

Cassie, Matt, and Daurie come together to discuss the Goose Girl retelling that started it all -- The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. Join us as we gush about the audio book, rhapsodize about how Shannon Hale names her characters, offering our opinions on the musical-in-progress, and teach you all the most important lesson you can learn from literature - what to do if you're being kidnapped.Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, Discord, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com This episode was edited by Brianna Jean.Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

Join Matt and Cassie as we discuss Thorn by Intisar Khanani, a book with a fascinating path to publication. We discuss another intricately built world and a second veritable buffet of trauma responses, the worst version of Conrad, the power struggle inherent in who gets to choose the narrative, horses vs. Horses, and the beauty of an ambiguous ending.Trigger warnings for this book and episode include physical and sexual assault. Please read and listen carefully. Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, Discord, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com This episode was edited by Brianna Jean.Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

Finally tackling one of Drew's all time favorites, Matt and Cassie come together to discuss Little Thieves by Margaret Owen, our loosest retelling this era, but a wonderful look at what happens to this story when we focus on and humanize the servant girl who forced the switch. Join us as we discuss intricate world building, incredible enemies-to-lovers banter, a veritable buffet of trauma responses, internalized privilege, and demisexual representation, and the ultimate question for this fairy tale --- does it NEED to have geese???Trigger warnings for this book and episode include physical and sexual assault. Please read and listen carefully. Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, Discord, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

Cassie and Matt begin Goose Girl Month with the Goose Girl episode from Tom Davenport's Tales from the Brothers Grimm featuring Helen Stoltzfus, Allison Brody, Sam Carter, Gene Morrill, Bo Patterson, and more. This series from the 80s reset classic fairy tales into settings from Appalachian history, specifically in one of the earliest American settlements for The Goose Girl. We discuss how the story is interpreted for this real world setting, what other periods of American history might have worked for this story, the Salem Witch Trials, the Untitled Goose Game, and more.Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, Discord, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

It's time to bid another farewell to our (riches to) rags to riches girlie and introduce ourselves to . . . ANOTHER riches to rags to riches girlie!  Cassie, Daurie, Laura, and Matt begin this episode with our final thoughts on Cinderella, and the potential for future adaptations. As always, we discuss our ideas for how we would like to retold the story ourselves. Then Cassie and Matthew begin their journey into a new story, which is The Goose Girl by the Brothers Grimm. We talk through the plot of the story and the many questions it brings up, then we reveal the criteria we'll be using for the story of The Goose Girl and which retellings we'll be talking about throughout the month! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, Discord, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

In the final episode of our third Cinderella era, Daurie and Cassie come together to discuss the classic Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix, an exploration of what happens after Happily Ever After, when life for Ella has become an endless round of lessons and restrictions and even worse, Prince Charming turns out to be more like Prince Boring. Why can't she talk with him the way she can with Jed, her earnest young tutor? Slowly, Ella comes to realize she doesn't want the life she fought so hard to win. But breaking her engagement proves more difficult -- and dangerous -- than escaping her stepmother's tyranny. Join us as we discuss our lengthy history with this novel, its impact on our soup eating, and the intricacies of glass blowing. We also touch on the novel's more problematic elements in the form of some pacing issues and its tendency toward fat-shaming.Trigger warnings for this book and episode include body image discussions, torture, physical assault, and threats of sexual assault. Please read and listen carefully. Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, Discord, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

For episode two of our third Cinderella era, Cassie is joined by Matt to discuss Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter, a retelling of the Russian Cinderella-esque story Vasilisa the Beautiful. When Vassa's stepsister sends her out to buy lightbulbs in the middle of the night, she knows it could easily become a suicide mission. Babs Yagg, the owner of the local convenience store, has a policy of beheading shoplifters―and sometimes innocent shoppers as well. But Vassa has a bit of luck hidden in her pocket, a gift from her dead mother. Erg is a tough-talking wooden doll with sticky fingers, a bottomless stomach, and ferocious cunning. With Erg's help, Vassa just might be able to break the witch's curse and free her Brooklyn neighborhood. Join us as we discuss the original Russian tale, complicated modern family relationships, anthropomorphized pangolins, and the nature of grief.Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, Discord, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

"I'm your fairy godmother! Didn't you see me poof?"In the first week of our third Cinderella era, Cassie and Laura discuss Faerie Tale Theatre's Cinderella, staring Jennifer Beals as Cinderella, Matthew Broderick as Prince Henry, and Jean Stapleton as the Fairy Godmother. We talk about sassy fairy godmothers, dorky princes, abruptly frank stepmothers, and much more!Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

Meet new cohosts Daurie, Laura, and Matt, and hear their thoughts on fairy tales in general, and this month's line up of Cinderella stories in particular.

We're coming back! See you all in one week, and Merry Christmas!-Cassie

Drew RothhaarFebruary 16, 1990 - February 21, 2023"To die will be an awfully big adventure."Thank you all so much for being part of our lives the past two years.

Sadly, we are here to wrap up our final thoughts on Of Slippers and Spindles. Drew and Cassie return for one last episode to explain the sudden hiatus that began in December and has now led to the decision to end the show. In true Of Slippers and Spindles style, we each give three final book recommendations: three retelling novels we wanted to cover on the podcast and are disappointed we didn't get to. But before we go, we celebrate one major goal that we were able to accomplish! Thank you all so much for listening, supporting, and going on this journey with us! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com  Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

Drew and Cassie begin our journey into The Wild Swans by Hans Christian Andersen with a look at the 1977 anime film from Toei Animation. The anime is a pretty straightforward retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's tale, although it takes several cues from Six Swans by the Brothers Grimm as well. We discuss our experiences with anime, Avatar: The Last Airbender, the incredible sound effects, Eliza's tear friends, swans bartering for goods, and more! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles  Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles  We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com  Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

It's time to tie up one fairy tale and fly into the next one! Drew and Cassie begin by giving their final thoughts on the tale of Rumpelstiltskin, including our ideas on how we would interpret the story ourselves. Then we begin our discussion of The Wild Swans by Hans Christian Andersen, which starts with the story of Six Swans by the Brothers Grimm. We talk through each of these stories and note their differences, and then we finish by revealing the four retellings we will be looking at through December!  Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles  Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles  We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com  Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

For our final week of Rumpelstiltskin Month, Drew and Cassie are delighted to be joined by Bethanie from Prince Kai Fan Pod to discuss Gilded and Cursed, the recently-completed YA duology by Marissa Meyer. This duology centers around Serilda, the daughter of a miller who was blessed by the god of fate and fortune and who is known for the fantastical stories she tells. When she comes face-to-face with the dangerous Erlking, her ability to tell stories gets her in trouble when she claims to spin straw into gold. Locked away in his castle, all seems hopeless - until a young man named Gild appears and offers to help. We discuss Marissa Meyer's use of names, the meanings behind some of the location names, Gilded vs. Wicked word counts, Cassie's lack of trust in Marissa, Cassie's fondness for banter, and so much more! And of course, we wrap up by revealing next month's fairy tale! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles  Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles  We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com  Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

Drew and Cassie are thrilled to be joined by Kimmy and Ryan from the Aloreing podcast for our third week of Rumpelstiltskin Month! We return once again to Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre to discuss the second episode of the series, Rumpelstiltskin, starring Shelley Duvall herself as the Miller's Daughter. This episode of the show is a relatively straight forward adaptation of the Brothers Grimm story, and though it gets goofy, it doesn't go off the rails nearly as much as some of the other episodes of Faerie Tale Theatre! Along the way, we discuss Shelley Duvall's wig, the trumpeter's wig, the trumpet itself, Shrek, Dwight Schrute, Li'l Sebastian, and more!Check out Kimmy and Ryan and Aloreing anywhere you listen to podcasts and at aloreing.com/links!  Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles  Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles  We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com  Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

It's week 2 of Rumpelstiltskin Month, and Drew and Cassie are back to dive into Spinners by Donna Jo Napoli and Richard Tchen. This is the story of two spinners. The first, a man who renames nameless throughout the book, hones his craft at a stolen wheel, crippling his leg, turning a room full of straw into a golden dress for his beloved - and losing her in the process. The second is Saskia, the daughter of a miller, a young girl who teaches herself to craft beautiful, unique yarns. And then the king learns of Saskia's talent, bringing the two spinners together. Tune in for some strong opinions about some of the genius ways this book retells the story of Rumpelstiltskin - and one devastating way in which it misses the mark!  Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles  Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles  We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com  Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com 

For our first week of Rumpelstiltskin Month, Drew and Cassie are discussing A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce. This 2008 YA novel follows Charlotte Miller, a young woman who inherits her father's mill upon his death. Although there are rumors that the mill is cursed, Charlotte has never believed them - but it's hard to deny the bad luck that piles up as workers depart, impossible debts are revealed, and an domineering uncle enters the scene. But then a strange man named Jack Spinner offers to help, and Charlotte finds herself caught up in his bargains until she can unravel the truth of who he is, what he wants, and why - and the mill, her community, and her family are at stake. Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

It's our 100th episode! Drew and Cassie celebrate by answering questions sent in by our amazing listeners, patrons, and supporters. We tell the origin story of the podcast and then we dive into the amazingly thoughtful questions you all sent in. We discuss our favorite episodes of the podcast, fairy tales we'll cover in the future, favorite tales from outside Europe, favorite books and TV shows, writing advice, Shakespeare, theatre, and so much more! Thank you all for your questions and thank you for listening!Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

It's time to climb down from the pile of mattresses and start spinning a new tale! Drew and Cassie begin this episode with our final thoughts on The Princess and the Pea, including our disappointment in the presence of the concept of the divine right to rule. As always, we discuss our ideas for how we would like to retold the story ourselves. Then we begin our journey into a new story for November, which is Rumpelstiltskin by the Brothers Grimm. We talk through the plot of the story and the many questions it brings up - and we disagree strongly on the randomness of the tale's ending! Then we reveal the criteria we'll be using for the story of Rumpelstiltskin and which retellings we'll be talking about throughout the month! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

"It wasn't the pea, it wasn't the pea, it wasn't the pea at all!"For our final week of The Princess and the Pea Month, we are discussing the ultimate retelling of The Princess and the Pea: Once Upon A Mattress, the 1959 Broadway musical with music by Mary Rodgers, lyrics by Marshall Barer, and book by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller, and Marshall Barer. We focus our plot discussion on the 2005 TV film starring Tracy Ullman and Carol Burnett, but we also reference the changes made from the original musical and for the 1964 and 1972 TV adaptations, all of which also starred Carol Burnett.  We discuss Carol Burnett's comedic genius, the set and costume designs, the subversion of tropes, the minstrel's presence, our love for the song "Happily Ever After," the genius reveal at the end, and more! Plus, we reveal which fairy tale we'll be looking at next month! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

It's week 3 of The Princess and the Pea Month! Drew and Cassie return to the Once Upon A Time series of YA books from the 2000s to discuss Violet Eyes by Debbie Viguié. This book centers around Violet, the daughter of a farmer who encounters her kingdom's prince when he is found unconscious in their fields after a storm. The two quickly fall in love - but Richard's parents want him to marry a true princess. Violet soon finds herself competing with princesses from throughout the land in order to prove her identity and character in hopes of winning Richard's hand.Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

In our second week discussing The Princess and the Pea by Hans Christian Andersen, Drew and Cassie are taking a look at The Princess Test by Gail Carson Levine, the third in her middle grade series called The Princess Tales. This quick little book centers on Lorelei, a blacksmith's daughter who is born with extreme sensitivity, who falls in love with Prince Nicholas, whose parents want to abdicate their thrones. Nicholas's parents insist Nicholas must marry a true princess and thus put 79 princesses - and Lorelei - through a series of ridiculous tests to determine who is worthy of their son.  We discuss the other books in the series, the series's writing style, a modern way to interpret Lorelei's sensitivity, Gilmore Girls, the lorelei of German folklore, the terrible princess tests, the Crocodile Princess, and more! Plus we make a very special announcement at the end that you won't want to miss! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

"Never underestimate the power of a vegetable." Drew and Cassie open The Princess and the Pea Month with the 2002 American-Hungarian animated film The Princess and the Pea from Feature Films For Families. We had a bit of a hard time when it came to enjoying this particular film, so we work our way through the story in an attempt to understand a very convoluted plot.  We discuss Sebastian's obsession with pea lore, tapestry vs. parchment, bizarre rules of succession, physical indicators of villainy, the stained glass window ghosts, nature vs. nurture, various similarities to other animated films from the 90s, dancing inconsistent world rules when it comes to animals, Drew steals Cassie's catchphrase, and more!  Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles  Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles  We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com  Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

Are you ready to leave the ball and climb some mattresses? Because it's time for a new tale! Drew and Cassie wrap up their final thoughts on Cinderella, including some themes that we've noticed that have been arising now that we have covered 10 different retellings of Cinderella. Then we begin our new story, The Princess and the Pea by Hans Christian Andersen. This tale is short and sweet, so we talk through its plot real quick before revealing the criteria for this new tale and which adaptations we'll be looking at through October! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles  Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles  We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com  Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

"Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game." It's the final week of our second Cinderella Month! We are joined by Bethanie Finger from Prince Kai Fan Pod, the Marissa Meyer Bookclub Podcast, to discuss the 2004 film A Cinderella Story starring Hilary Duff, Chad Michael Murray, Jennifer Coolidge, Regina King, and more. This teen romcom take on the Cinderella tale follows Sam, a modern-day high schooler who is left in the custody of her wicked stepmother, Fiona, and is forced to work in her family's diner while navigating high school. Things come to a head when Fiona insists Sam work instead of attending the Halloween dance, where Sam knows she could possibly come face-to-face  when her anonymous penpal crush for the first time - of course, Sam has no idea that this anonymous penpal crush is actually Austin Ames, the most popular boy in school. We talk about the various A Cinderella Story spinoffs, cell phones in the early 2000s, Sam's friendship with Carter, casting adults as teenagers, comparisons to The Princess Diaries, Bethanie's many red flags about Austin, the wacky timeline, some jokes that didn't age well, and much more!  Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

"'My feet are not bound.' 'I noticed,' said the prince." For our fourth retelling in our second Cinderella Month, Drew and Cassie are taking a look at Bound by Donna Jo Napoli. This 2004 book specifically retells the ancient Chinese legend of Ye Xian, reimagining the main character as Xing Xing, a young woman whose circumstances have left her orphaned and living with her cruel and jealous stepmother and half-sister, Wei Ping. We discuss the appropriateness of Napoli as a white author telling this story, the lack of development for the prince, the complicated family relationships, the way Napoli uses foot binding to connect to the Cinderella story, the inclusion of the toe removal from the Grimm version of the story, Stepmother as a clever villain, and more! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

"I'm not happy pretending everything is fine when I know it's not." Drew and Cassie return after a hiatus to continue our Cinderella Month with our next book, Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron. This 2020 YA novel imagines a harshly patriarchal world set 200 years after Cinderella's death, in which her story is used to enforce the rules of the world. Our heroine is 16-year-old Sophia, who is about the attend the ball for the first time, and who is desperate to rebel against the world thanks to her love for her best friend, Erin. Sophia ends up fleeing the ball and starting a campaign to bring down the king along with help from a descendant of Cinderella's stepsister, the original fairy godmother, and more. While we share many of the same frustrations with this book, we do appreciate some of the ideas at the core of the story! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com  

"His father wanted him to choose Lavaliere for Prince's Preference, but he had to talk to Ella."Drew and Cassie are so excited to talk about Megan Morrison's Tyme series but also sad that this is the final Morrison book that has been published! For our second week in Cinderella Month, we are discussing Morrison's Disenchanted: The Trials of Cinderella. This novel is told from three points of view: Ella Coach, a young woman whose mother died in a sweat shop and wants every laborer in the Blue Kingdom to receive fairer treatment; Prince Dash Charming, a young man whose familial curse has recently been broken, and who wants to be a better person than his father and grandfather before him; and Serge, a fairy godfather who is losing his magic, and who finds himself in a position to help one Ella Coach. We discuss the creative world of Tyme, the incredibly themed characters names, Serge/Jasper, fantasy slang, the way the Cinderella elements are rearranged, awesome mom Queen Maud, and we say "these books are so good" about ten times!Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindlesVisit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindlesWe love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.comMusic: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com 

"I don't want a life stuck waving from a royal box any more than a life confined to a basement."Drew and Cassie begin our return to the fairy tale of Cinderella by discussing the Amazon Prime movie from 2021 starring Camila Cabello, Idina Menzel, Billy Porter, and more. This jukebox movie musical incorporates songs like "Rhythm Nation," "Somebody to Love," and "Material Girl" while reimagining Cinderella as a young woman who dreams of designing fashion and owning a dress shop. Meanwhile, Prince Robert is struggling with his father's expectations versus his own desires, and soon the two protagonists find their ambitions entwined. We discuss jukebox musicals, the movie's similarities to other Cinderella-adjacent movies, the aggressively contemporary dialogue, the reinterpretation of Cinderella's relationship with her stepfamily, Cassie's idea on how to fix the story, and more! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com 

"This is all your fault, Jafar." In our final week of Aladdin Month, Drew and Cassie are joined by Cassie's younger brother, Jeffrey, to discuss the 2013 musical Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier from StarKid Productions. This parody of Disney's Aladdin is inspired by Wicked and retells the tale from Jafar's point of view, reimagining him as a well-intentioned advisor to the king who is trying to fix all of the kingdom's problems, but finds himself blamed for them instead. Aladdin himself is a greedy 33-year-old orphan who seeks to take advantage of the optimistic Princess, and all this is happening while Prince Achmed - yes, that Prince Achmed - seeks revenge for being attacked by a tiger. We discuss Jim Povolo's voice, dodging copyright laws, Jasmine as a Social Justice Warrior, Dylan Saunders' extraordinary performance, the inclusion of Scheherazade, Michael Caine in The Muppet Christmas Carol, the many references and allusions to Disney movies and Disney history, and more!  Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles  Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles  We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com  Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com 

It's time to wish our way out of one fairy tale and into another! Drew and Cassie wrap up their final thoughts on Aladdin, including, and then rather than discussing how we would retell the tale ourselves like we usually do, we suggest ideas of how we would like to see someone else retell Aladdin. Then we take a journey to the past by explaining why we wanted to revisit Cinderella. We discuss the plots of some of the most prominent cultural variants of the story: Rhodopis of Greece, Ye Xian of China, and Vasilisa the Brave of Russia. We also update our criteria a little bit from the last time we talked about Cinderella and reveal which books and movies we'll be reading and watching throughout the month!  Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles  Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles  We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com  Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com 

"You ain't never had a friend like me!" Disney week came early this month! For our third week of Aladdin Month, Drew and Cassie discuss Disney's 1992 animated film, the 2019 live action movie, the 2011 Broadway musical, and much more! We talk about our personal memories and connections to Disney's version of Aladdin before delving into the plot specifics of the animated movie. Then we talk about the differences made for the live action movie and the Broadway musical, and then we go even further by looking at some of the changes made for Aladdin, Jr. and Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular at the California Adventure theme park. We discuss the Disney+ stereotype warning, the various iterations of Iago, the casting issues across all versions, Aladdin as the "diamond in the rough," Jasmine's naiveté contrasted with her strength, Robin Williams' Genie vs. Will Smith's Genie vs. the Broadway Genie, the adaptation from screen to stage, ways in which Disney nods to the original fairy tale, Aladdin's appearances in the theme parks, and much more!  Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles  Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles  We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com  Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com 

"Oh, my naive thief. Love is rarely a choice.” For our second week of Aladdin Month, Drew and Cassie are discussing The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury. This 2016 YA novel casts Zahra as the protagonist, a jinn who has been trapped for five hundred years until her lamp is found by a young man named Aladdin. As Aladdin makes his three wishes and Zahra receives an opportunity to earn her freedom, the two characters find themselves falling into a star-crossed love. We talk about the novel's jinn lore, reinterpreting Aladdin's laziness as trauma, Pinterest, the "make me a prince" wish across all retellings, compulsory heterosexuality, the different ways Drew and Cassie imagine characters when reading, and more! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com 

Drew and Cassie begin Aladdin Month with the Aladdin episode from HBO's Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child featuring the voices of B.D. Wong, George Takei, Joan Chen, and more. This series from the 90s reset classic fairy tales into alternate cultural settings, although for Aladdin they kept the Chinese setting from the original story. We discuss Aladdin as a dreamer instead of just lazy, the combination of the magician and the vizier, using the lamp as a lamp, the lack of actual wishing involved, the movie Holes, and much more!Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindlesVisit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindlesWe love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.comMusic: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com 

It's time to dance our way out of June's story and make a wish to start July's story: Aladdin! Drew and Cassie wrap up our final thoughts on The 12 Dancing Princesses, and Drew shares some thoughts on the reasons he doesn't care for the original story while Cassie helps sort through these ideas. As we discuss our own ideas for how we would retell the tale, Drew connects The 12 Dancing Princesses to a different, perhaps more beloved, story, and Cassie goes into detail about "Deliverance," her version of the story that she's been hinting to throughout the month. Then we begin our journey into the world of Aladdin by discussing its muddled history before talking about the "original" tale. We end by revealing the Aladdin criteria and which retellings we'll be reading and watching throughout July! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com 

"I could dance forever and ever and ever."In our final week of The 12 Dancing Princesses Month, Drew and Cassie are joined by Drew's sister, Daurie, to discuss perhaps the world's most popular retelling of the story, the 2006 film Barbie in The 12 Dancing Princesses. Barbie plays the role of Genevieve, the 7th of 12 sisters whose father decides they must learn to be "proper princesses." When their instructor begins to suck all of the joy out of their lives, the 12 princesses find a magic portal to a secret world where they can dance to their hearts' content. We talk about the musical and ballet influences, Felix the Parrot, the personality prescribed to each princess, the total elimination of the fairy tale's original plotline, Mattel's protection of the Barbie character, Ken-as-Derek-as-Sherlock Holmes, "the Power of Twelve," the magical wishing flowers, and more! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindlesVisit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindlesWe love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.comMusic: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com 

“Nights like this were meant to be shared, remembered, and talked about for years."The 12 Dancing Princesses Month continues as Drew and Cassie take a look at the popular 2019 YA novel House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig. This book follows Annaleigh Thaumas, the sixth of twelve sisters, who lives a sheltered life at her family's stronghold in Highmoor. The four eldest Thaumas daughters have died over the last few years, and rumors are spreading that the family is cursed. As Annaleigh's remaining sisters begin to sneak out every night to attend glittering balls, Annaleigh herself is more occupied with seeking out answers about the sisters that are gone. We discuss our many frustrations with the book, the mysterious theme connecting the sisters' names, the incorporation of the gods of the book's world, the story's many twists, and more!   Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindlesVisit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindlesWe love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.comMusic: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com 

“Dancing was a dangerous game, but it meant that at night, at least, they knew what to do with themselves.” We continue our month of exploring The 12 Dancing Princesses with The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine. This YA retelling removes all magic from the story and recontextualizes it by dropping the twelve young women into the Roaring '20s! Jo Hamilton and her eleven sisters live their lives trapped in the house of their father, who almost never acknowledges them, but they find freedom by sneaking out at night and dancing in the speakeasies of Manhattan. But everything changes when their father begins to suspect their activities and decides to start marrying his daughters off one by one. We discuss the creative new setting, Jo Hamilton vs. Jo March, the emphasis on the relationships between the sisters, the king/father as a villain, and more!  Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com 

“She was, surprisingly, an exquisite dancer." We journey into Week 2 of The 12 Dancing Princesses Month with one of Cassie's favorite fairy tale retellings of all time, Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George. Cassie loves this book and was pretty anxious to hear what Drew's opinion would be after reading it for the first time! Set in the fictional kingdom of Westfalin, this YA novel from 2009 remains faithful to the original story while digging deeper to answer the many questions the fairy tale raises. Galen is a young soldier returning from war and Rose the eldest of a dozen princesses, and both find themselves searching for a way to break a curse that is forcing the twelve sisters to dance in a secret underworld every night. Dark forces are working against them in the world below as well as the world above, and they must resort to some creative resources to defeat some formidable foes!  Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch store, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com 

"I have no patience for hearts and flowers and young men who brag about this victory and that. There's more to life than romance." We begin our month discussing The 12 Dancing Princesses by returning once again to Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre! This time we are looking at the series' final episode, season 6, episode 3, The Dancing Princesses, starring Lesley Ann Warren. Although the number of sisters is slimmed down to 6 instead of 12, once again Faerie Tale Theatre remains fairly faithful to the original story. We discuss the rhyming names, the soldier's moustache, Lesley Anne Warren's classic deadpan, our ideas for developing the story further, and more! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch story, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com 

It's time to let one story croak and dance into a new tale: The 12 Dancing Princesses! But first, Drew and Cassie wrap up their final thoughts on The Frog Prince. We acknowledge some of the similarities between this month's books and movies, we read a listener email about Iron Henry, and we discuss our thoughts on how we would adapt the story. Then we move on to our next fairy tale! We talk through the plot of The 12 Dancing Princesses, then we reveal our criteria and which books and movies we'll be looking at throughout the month of June!  Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles  Visit our our new merch story, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles  We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com 

"There is no way I am kissing a frog and eating a bug on the same day!"  It's the final week of The Frog Prince Month, which means it's Disney week! We are taking a look at Disney's version of this story, 2009's The Princess and the Frog, starring Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos, Keith David, Jennifer Cody, John Goodman, Oprah Winfrey, and more! This animated movie, loosely based on the book The Frog Princess by E. D. Baker, is a little bit meta as it inverts the classic tale. When a frog appears to Tiana, a hard-working woman living in New Orleans in 1926, she agrees to kiss him to make him human again. But the spell backfires, leaving Naveen as he is and turning Tiana into a frog too! Now they're stuck together until they can figure out how to reverse the spell. We discuss this movie's controversial history, Tiana's friendship with Charlotte, the beautiful 2D animation, the affect this movie had on Disney's marketing, similarities to Wicked and The Wizard of Oz, and more!  Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles  Visit our our new merch story, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles  We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com 

In our third week discussing The Frog Prince, Drew and Cassie are looking at Water Song by Suzanne Weyn, the 10th book in the Once Upon A Time YA series from the early 2000s. This book sets the story during World War I and follows Emma, a British socialite who has found herself isolated in her family's mansion along the warfront in Belgium. A soldier named Jack seeks refuge from a gas attack in Emma's well, and soon the two find themselves confined to the house by German soldiers. They must fake a marriage as they also plot to undermine the enemy and search for an escape. We discuss the incorporation of magic, the ways Weyn uses the story elements, the possibility of an appearance from Iron Henry, and more! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch story, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com 

"He opened his mouth again and tried to speak. 'Ribbit.'"  Drew and Cassie are revisiting their favorite fairy tale series, the Tyme novels by Megan Morrison! The third book, Transformed: The Perils of the Frog Prince, follows Prince Syrah of the Olive Isles, an arrogant young man who makes a wish that backfires and turns him into a frog! A sudden, deadly plague descends upon the people of Yellow Country, and as a small creature, Syrah finds himself privy to a lot of crucial and private information. He soon finds himself playing detective, trying to discover the origins of the plague and trying to break his curse simultaneously. As we talk through the story, we laud Megan Morrison for her genius world-building and clever adaptive choices, admire the creative incorporation of the various elements of the original fairy tale, lament the Tyme series' cancellation, speculate about what may have happened in the future, and more!  Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles  Visit our our new merch story, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles  We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com 

"Pardon me, could you not make so much noise? You're scaring away all the flies."  For our first week of The Frog Prince Month, we watched the premiere episode of Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre from 1982, The Tale of the Frog Prince, starring Robin Williams, Teri Garr, and Eric Idle. This relatively faithful adaptation of the Grimms' fairy tale gets pretty wacky, with an over-the-top performance from the spoiled princess and stand-up comedian version of the frog. We discuss theories on Grizelda the Witch, the magic, floating, golden ball, Robin Williams' frog costume, the antagonistic dynamic between the frog and the princess, the bizarre ending, and much more!  Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles  Visit our our new merch story, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles  We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com 

It's time to tap our heels together three times to leave Oz behind and splash our way into a new fairy tale: The Frog Prince! Drew and Cassie wrap up their final thoughts on The Wizard of Oz, including discussing why adapting Oz seems to elude authors and reading an email from a listener explaining a gap in our knowledge about The Wiz. Before we leave the Yellow Brick Road behind, as we do every month, we discuss our own ideas about how we would retell Oz (although, of course, Cassie already has)! Then it's time to move on to The Frog Prince! We talk a little about the story's history and a lot about how we as a society have revised the story's ending before breaking down the tale's plot. We wrap up by revealing our criteria and which books and movies we'll be looking at throughout the month of May! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our *brand new* Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch story, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com 

"Are people born wicked? Or is wickedness thrust upon them?" We're nearing the end of the Yellow Brick Road! For our final week in The Wizard of Oz Month, Drew and Cassie discuss Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire as well as the 2003 Broadway musical adaptation with a book by Winnie Holzman and music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, originally starring Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth. Wicked follows the story of Elphaba, a young woman who was born in the land of Oz with green skin, chronicling her friendship with a girl named Glinda, her antagonism with the Wizard of Oz, and how she became known as the Wicked Witch of the West. The book and the musical are vastly different stories, so after discussing our personal connections to Wicked, we work our way through the plot of the book first and then the musical. We discuss Maguire's decision to make Oz dark and gritty, the origins of Elphaba's name, some of the book's struggles, Maguire's intentional word usage, Chekhov's gun, some of our favorite quotes and lyrics, No Fly shows, the fun and obvious foreshadowing, Glinda's development, and we end it all by getting super emotional about For Good. Plus, we reveal which fairy tale we'll be talking about for the month of May! Join our community! View all of the benefits of joining our *brand new* Patreon including the Official Of Slippers and Spindles Book Club, exclusive polls, monthly bookmarks, Zoom hangouts, and more! https://patreon.com/ofslippersandspindles Visit our our new merch story, Facebook group, Instagram, and more! https://linktr.ee/ofslippersandspindles We love to hear from you! You can reach us at ofslippersandspindles@gmail.com Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com