Today I have the pleasure in welcoming Cornelia Funke to Book Chick City – the third stop on her blog tour. Courtesy of Chicken House, you have the chance to win a copy of Reckless, along with a signed book plate – so make sure you enter at the end of the post.

Cornelia is the critically acclaimed, bestselling author of Dragon Rider, The Thief Lord, and the Inkheart trilogy. Inkheart was turned into a major motion picture in 2008. Reckless, the first book in her latest major series, was published in hardback in 2010 and is out in paperback this July. Although a native German, Cornelia now lives in Los Angeles, California, with her family.

Cornelia Funke

Since I have been working on Reckless I have often been asked why I was tempted to use fairy tales as a basis for Jacob Reckless’s adventures. Firstly, I have to say that I never liked fairy tales. As a child they scared me and later I found them to be quite boring. They seemed always to have the same patterns: the storylines were often completely random and the heroes were cardboard characters without any psychological depth. Why, then, are fairy tales so unforgettable? Why do most of us still know who Little Red Riding Hood is, or Snow White or Cinderella? Yes, there are the Disney movies. But that’s not the reason. There are some fairy tales that would be far too dark for Disney.

The more I know about fairy tales the more I am sure that they are an almost limitless treasure chest filled with lots of uncomfortable truths about human nature; our darkest wishes and fears. They tell us tales of shamans and shape shifters; but ultimately they drive home the truth that we are just another manifestation of nature – a truth that we love to forget as it reminds us of our mortality. Fairy tales give us unforgettable images that are timeless and continue to express the pain and joy of human existence.

But fairy tales also fulfill our most ignoble wishes: for endless riches and relentless revenge. They call our mothers ‘stepmothers’ and our sisters ‘stepsisters’ to allow us jealousy and hate. Evil is always ugly and goodness is always beautiful. Fairy tales are reactionary: preserving and defending the rules of the societies that told them.

The Brothers Grimm in Germany or Charles Perrault in France wrote down the stories they heard in villages from the peasants but they changed what they heard according to their beliefs – and suddenly Little Red Riding Hood needs a hunter to rescue her, where once a few women came to her rescue. Suddenly girls are timid, vain, and wait for the prince, whereas in older tales they were fierce and independent; in much the same way, old goddesses became witches.

So, over the centuries, fairy tales have always been a strange mix of rebellion and conformity; of the worst and the best in us; of old and new. They remain a wonderfully embroidered riddle worthy of being deciphered.

Thanks Cornelia!

You can find out more about Cornelia and her books here:

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter

Thanks to Chicken House I can offer you a copy of “Reckless” (with a signed book plate) to giveaway as a prize.

This giveaway is open internationally and ends 6th July 2011.

To enter all you have to do is the following: