posted on 20 Nov 2024

Doctor Fairytale by Catherine Jacob and Hoang Giang

Are you as curious as I am about the lives of your favourite fairy tale characters when they’re not at the centre of the story? If you are, you’ve also probably wondered about their health and wellbeing - after all, some of them have a pretty rough time of things when they are centre-stage. Well, wonder no more because Catherine Jacob and Hoang Giang have thrown back the curtain on the functioning of the fairytale land’s health services.

A young girl opens up her bag of playthings - it’s a doctor’s kit and she is about to become….Doctor Fairytale!

Doctor Fairytale is a busy young woman - dragons with sore throats, snoring Princesses and even painful feet for the young lady who went to a ball, lost a shoe and had to hobble home. Then there’s the more embarrassing moments - how did that golden-haired child get splinters in her bum? Sitting on the chairs of three bears has its dangers…

Who has spared time to even think about the agonies that poor old Rapunzel must go through when people use her hair to abseil up the side of a tower? That’s a sore head for anyone but the doctor may have the solution - a new hairstyle is required.

And Doctor Fairytale helps without fear or favour - even the wolf who gets outwitted by the three pigs gets a bandage for his head. And she’s a doctor without fear when the Wicked Queen makes use of her poison apple.

At the end of the day even doctors are only human and can get sick, so after a long day and a good soaking from the rain, Doctor Fairytale needs to take to her bed and nurse the cold she is hatching. But there’s a nice surprise awaiting her when she hears a noise outside her window - there in the garden below are all the characters she’s helped:

“You’re ill. The news has spread.

You’ve been so kind to us,

Now we’ll look after you instead!”

As she sleeps in her cosy bed she dreams lovely dreams of fairytale land.

Beautifully and generously illustrated by Hoang Giang, the big, full page illustrations are bursting with colour. Born in Vietnam and working as a self-taught illustrator until 2016 when she registered for an MA in illustration at Cambridge. The illustrations work in conjunction with the rhymed story to bring the world of Doctor Fairytale to life and add a second dimension to the tale.

Available now from Walker Books, you will be able to get a copy from your local independent bookshop - who will be happy to order it for you if they don’t have it on their shelves.

 

Terry Potter

November 2024