The Amaranth Enchantment

By Julie Berry

Bloomsbury, $16.99

My Fair Godmother

By Janette Rallison

Walker, $16.99

As long as there are books written for young people, there will be new twists on classic fairy tales. Here are two books where imagination is key.

Julie Berry combines other-worldly fantasy with elements of "Cinderella" in "The Amaranth Enchantment." After her parents' deaths, Lucinda Chapdelaine must struggle to survive life with her cruel aunt as a helper in her jewelry shop. When an exotically beautiful lady known in town as the "Amaranth Witch" comes into the shop to have a stone reset, life changes for Lucinda. She meets a braggadocios pickpocket named Peter, who steals the customer's stone and leaves Lucinda fighting to reclaim it and clear her name.

Mix in a handsome prince, who of course falls for Lucinda just before his engagement to the neighboring princess, an avarice-driven bad guy who killed Lucinda's parents and is now out to kill her, and another world that is connected to the stone, and you've got a made-for-television fairy tale. (Prudereview Rating: PG for violence.)

In a delightfully creative, light-hearted fairy tale, author Janette Rallison takes a modern teenage character on a whirlwind ride through classic story lines: Cinderella, Snow White, and the ubiquitous tale of the knight that must slay the dragon to win the princess.

Instead of having a fairy godmother, Savannah gets "fair" godmother Chrissy, a teenage godmother barely squeaking by in godmother training, only earning a grade of "fair" in class work. Offering Savannah the expected three wishes turns out to be disastrous, as Savannah's directives are given without enough specificity for the godmother-in-training.

Savannah is disgruntled with her older sister for stealing her prom date, so her first wish is to simply have a life like a fairy tale, with a handsome prince waiting for her at the ball. When she's sent to live as Cinderella months before the ball even takes place, and then realizes that the prince is a jerk, she rethinks her wish. The second and third wish end up equally disastrous, but Savannah's attitude and self-awareness change for the better with each mishap. (Prudereview Rating: G.)

See more of Southern Pines writer Charlene Vermeulen's reviews at www.prudereviews.blogspot.com.