{"id":186055,"date":"2025-04-15T12:26:46","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T12:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/entertainment\/books\/wolf-siren-by-beth-obrien-the-federation-of-childrens-book-groups\/"},"modified":"2025-04-15T12:26:46","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T12:26:46","slug":"wolf-siren-by-beth-obrien-the-federation-of-childrens-book-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=186055","title":{"rendered":"Wolf Siren by Beth O\u2019Brien \u2013 The Federation of Children&#8217;s Book Groups"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"text\">\n<p>We have author Beth O\u2019Brien writing for us today about her book, Wolf Siren and it\u2019s links to a well known fairytale. Beth speaks about her own visual impairment in relation to fairytales.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-22126 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/fcbg.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/image001-195x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"195\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fcbg.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/image001-195x300.jpg 195w, https:\/\/fcbg.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/image001-459x705.jpg 459w, https:\/\/fcbg.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/image001.jpg 477w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 195px) 100vw, 195px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Why does Little Red Riding Hood not immediately realise that her grandmother has been replaced by a wolf? This was something I never questioned when I heard the story as a child. I simply accepted the unusual logic of a magic world where a talking wolf able to don a nightcap was right at home. But after to a lot of research into the representation of disability in fairy tales and fairy tale retellings, adult me began to question it, and based on my own experiences of being visually impaired, I thought I might be well placed to answer it, too!<\/p>\n<p>Disabled characters are very common in fairy tales, and perhaps, especially blindness. Take, Cinderella\u2019s stepsisters who are blinded by doves, or even Rapunzel\u2019s prince who falls from a tower and somehow lands precisely on his eyeballs. Yet, as with those two examples, blindness is inflicted on a character as a punishment. In the case of the prince, who is considered a morally good character unjustly punished, he is later cured of his disability and goes on to live happily ever after. This association of blindness as a punishment for wickedness (and sightedness as a reward for goodness) was something I was very well aware of when writing Wolf Siren, and something I was determined to avoid.<\/p>\n<p>What was more, my own experience did not fit into this all-or-nothing depiction of vision. In fact, most people who are blind or partially sighted have some form of usable vision, whether that be light, colour, and\/or movement. But depictions in literature rarely convey this. So, I decided that my main character, Red, would see the world the same way I do, which means relying on colour, light, movement, memory and a large dose of educated guesswork to figure out what\u2019s around her. And rather than relying on magical cures to fix her, I had a lot of fun creating a magical woodland that was able to lend her a helping hand (or branch) when needed. In that way, I tried to tap into the wonderous magic of fairy tales to turn a difficult environment into a place where she could feel free.<\/p>\n<p>For me, Little Red Riding Hood was the perfect tale to explore visual impairment, because if you relied on expectation and guessing to fill in the blanks of what you see, would you expect to be confronted by a wolf wearing your grandmother\u2019s clothes? Me neither!<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Federation.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We have author Beth O\u2019Brien writing for us today about her book, Wolf Siren and it\u2019s links to a well known fairytale. Beth speaks about her own visual impairment in relation to fairytales. \u00a0 Why does Little Red Riding Hood not immediately realise that her grandmother has been replaced by a wolf? This was something [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":186056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[7708,2268,352,3723,3724,7502,33244,941],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-186055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-beth","tag-book","tag-childrens","tag-federation","tag-groups","tag-obrien","tag-siren","tag-wolf"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Wolf Siren by Beth O\u2019Brien \u2013 The Federation of Children&#039;s Book Groups - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=186055\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wolf Siren by Beth O\u2019Brien \u2013 The Federation of Children&#039;s Book Groups - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We have author Beth O\u2019Brien writing for us today about her book, Wolf Siren and it\u2019s links to a well known fairytale. 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This was something [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=186055\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-15T12:26:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/image001.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"477\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"733\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=186055#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=186055\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\"},\"headline\":\"Wolf Siren by Beth O\u2019Brien \u2013 The Federation of Children&#8217;s Book Groups\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-15T12:26:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=186055\"},\"wordCount\":471,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=186055#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/image001.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Beth\",\"Book\",\"Childrens\",\"Federation\",\"Groups\",\"OBrien\",\"Siren\",\"Wolf\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Books\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=186055#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=186055\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=186055\",\"name\":\"Wolf Siren by Beth O\u2019Brien \u2013 The Federation of Children's Book Groups - 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