When Minka, the woman who cares for Margaret, decides to marry her off, our heroine decides that leg or no leg she is not going to have her life decided for her. But what she sees when she peers into it is a strange wild-eyed man she’s never laid eyes on before. When she makes the acquaintance of a man with a wooden leg, she receives in a trade a mirror capable of showing anyone their heart’s desire.

But of course she’s desperately lonely, and that’s a problem that’s hard to cure. Though she sports a lame foot (an “accident of birth” she’s been told) and is an orphan, she has a roof over her head, food in her belly, and aside from avoiding Thomas, the local bully, not too much trouble in life. Margaret (or Maggot, depending on who’s talking about her) should technically be grateful for her life. Funny, friendly, witty and sly, this makes for perfect bedtime reading. The result is fairy tale fare that reminds one of nothing so much as the best of Gail Carson Levine. Merely take the elements that suit the story best (highway robbers, princesses, and just a smidgen of magic) and then weave in some surprisingly stellar writing. How do you get a foothold in a genre that’s been in existence for centuries? In The Magic Mirror by Susan Hill Long, the author decides to simplify. It’s the newbies that have a hard time going. On the book side of things, I’ve seen a distinct uptick in retellings of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and more in the last five years.

Recently fairy tale lovers have seen the entertainment industry discover that fairy tales are still a primo source of capital. What do you want from a fairy tale? Magic? Romance? Derring-do? Despicable villainy? Academics and scholars have puzzled and puzzed until their puzzlers were sore over what it is about the European fairy tale genre that so enthralls us. Knopf (an imprint of Penguin Random House) The Magic Mirror: Concerning a Lonely Princess, a Foundling Girl, a Scheming King, and a Pickpocket Squirrel

Magic mirror comics