Concerning & Potentially Concerning Content

While certainly not the worst example ever, the main character is not one that Christian parents would likely want their daughters to look up to. This is especially apparent in her behavior as a sister. While there are moments of growth as the book moves along, there are plenty where she treats her younger brother as annoyance. In one example she says, “my job as an older sister is to boss Jonah around.” She also comes across as self-centered. As with many stories, the main characters sneak around without their parents knowing. This is magnified in this case because at the end the magic mirror tells the kids not to tell their parents what happened, and they choose to listen There are also several instance of discussion around worldly views on boys and girls in relationship to appearance, such as “cute prince”, “cute dwarf”, “first ugliest”. At one point the main character wonders, “would a handsome prince fall in love with a smashed head”. There are a handful of things said that should also be considered. By far the worst comes when, upon meeting Snow White in the fairy tale, she guesses that the reason why she doesn’t know about modern things is that “maybe she’s homeschooled or one of those kids who was never allowed to watch TV or use a cell phone” and then later adds that her “parents must be health nuts too.” There are also instances of things like a fortune teller, a witch, bad luck, “crazy”, Frankenstein, stupid, Halloween. Finally, some parents may not like the fact that this story modifies the classical ending to give it a more “modern” spin (although it is still a good over evil ending).