Beautiful Wild Rose Girl by B. Magnolia

     B. Magnolia is a modern day teller of fairy tales.  His fairy tale Beautiful Wild Rose Girl is a strange and thought-provoking story about a young girl who lives alone in a swamp.  All day long she hears the frogs croak.  This is what she hears them croaking: 

      TroOonk! TroOonk!  TroOonk!

       What a stupid Ugly girl!

    This young girl hears them all night and she believes them. 

   To make a living the girl picks roses from a field of wild roses.  These roses are so wild that no one can pick them because of their terrible thorns. Nevertheless, out of pity for the lonely girl, they let her pick  and sell them to the village people.

     The village people believe that she must be someone very special indeed if she can pick roses from such a dangerous field.  The men of the village consider her very beautiful and come up to her, calling her Beautiful Wild Rose Girl and ask her to marry them.

   She does not listen to them because she thinks that they must be mistaken.  She believes what the frogs say about her.  The men assume that she will not marry her because she is so beautiful and only the roses must be good enough for her.

      There’s a definite moral as well as an acute observation of human psychology in the story. 

  It doesn’t matter how others perceive us but how we perceive ourselves.  The girl allowed the frogs to determine the picture of herself to the point where she can’t listen to anyone else.  Her rejection of others results in them misperceiving who she really is.  They conclude that she thinks she’s better than everyone else instead of understanding that when people reject others it’s because they have first rejected themselves.

   Another interesting aspect of the book is its construction.   The illustrations are pen and ink by Jamila Kepba, a local artist in San Francisco.  There are three versions of the book.  One is paperback but the other two are made out of handmade paper in the style of Japanese art.  The publishers have committed to bring back the art of the handmade book that is affordable.  Visit Maganolia's web site for more information.

I received a free copy of this book by the author.

     

On Kindle for .99

 For more information:
www.mysticworldpress.com