The traditional tales, “retold” by an illustrator, function as a mechanism for illustrators to capture the full ten percent royalty, and not have to split it with an separate individual author. Alphabet books and counting books and nursery rhyme books function in this manner for illustrators also.

That is: The economics are in favor of traditional tales whenever an illustrator has enough clout with a publisher to be given the opportunity to control the entire “marquee” aspect of the marketing of a book.

Contrariwise, the new, fractured fairy-tales are ways for authors (established, but also, new) to capitalize on the guaranteed marketing power of established “titles,” and collect a royalty for their “original” work.

This is business. There are shades of nuance that every editor and agent deals with in the development of every author or illustrator’s career.

There is no bigger financial win than occurs when an author or illustrator creates “the new standard” version of a “classic” text.

Does that mean the stories no longer work for us? Has it become impossible to take them seriously anymore (either because they are too clicheed, too naive, or the details too far removed from modern life)? Or are the changes more a reflection of the constant push to make things new, improved, different?

Personally, I don’t mind the transformations. It’s a testament to the power of the original stories that they’re still being worked and re-worked, and that children still find them fascinating, even in altered form.