Just wanted to give this thread a bump - I recently read Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier, which is a re-telling of “The Six Swans” - one of the less popular tales. I really liked it. It reminded me a bit of McKinely’s Deerskin - my personal favorite out of all the McKinely retellings.
Yay!
(Says Lissla Lissar)
I came in to mention Deerskin, although Spindle’s End, Beauty*, and Rose Daughter are all good.
East, by Edith Pattou, is a good retelling of East of the Sun, West of the Moon.
Anne Sexton’s fairy tale poems are quite good.
As people above have mentioned some of Mercedes Lackey’s other fairy tale based stuff, I’m going to have to mention her 500 Kingdoms books. They are based on a land where fairy tales are real, and there is a overarching force called “Tradition” that tries to force people down fairy-tale paths. The main character in the first book is a girl that was supposed to follow a Cinderella path, but “her” prince was just a baby when she was of age. The books end up knocking into all sorts of fairy tales and mythology along the way. The first book, The Fairy Godmother, focuses mostly on European fairy tales. The second, One Good Knight, draws more from Greek mythology. The latest, Fortune’s Fool, draws from Russian folklore (including a run-in with Baba Yaga, etc.), and a little dabbling in Japanese.
As far as my favorites, Lackey’s The Fire Rose and McKinley’s Beauty are the frontrunners.
Has anyone ever re-written the story of the Princess and the Pea? 'Cause you know that chick either died in childbirth or she was pinching herself all night. Either way, it’s bad news for the Prince and the Kingdom.
I think it’s a complete coincidence, but my two favorites are both retelling of the Tam Lin … fairy tale? I think it’s more like a poem, but whatever.
My absolutely most favorite is Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin, which I love because it is so modern (or so early 1970s) and the fairytale parts are really deeply embedded in there. I cannot recommend this highly enough. It’s set at a fictional midwestern college (closely based on real life Carlton College), and focuses a lot on issues related to women and academia.
I also love Elizabeth Marie Pope’s The Perilous Gard, also a Tam Lin story, set in Elizabethan times.
There was Once Upon a Mattress, as I recall.
The thought of her in childbirth though, would be a major ouchie mcgouchie.
My daughter’s a big fan of Lauren Child’s retelling of The Princess and the Pea. It doesn’t rethink the legend from the ground up, but Child does add many witty asides and details that reward the adults reading the story.
My favorite little detail: the last page of the book reveals that, at the wedding feast, peas were not served, because as everyone knows, real princesses don’t care for peas.
And the illustrations are top-notch.
Seriously? I hate peas! I am so a princess. 
Well, you don’t have to have such an attitude about it. Have you ever really eaten them or is your opinion based solely on their appearance? And why does your hatred of peas make you soooo superior (i.e., a princess)?
Okay, I’m sorry. That was going too far. You should just try them before forming an opinion (or try them again if it’s been a long time since you last ate them). All that I’m saying is give peas a chance.
This one’s a rap song - MC Frontalot, an excellent nerdcore rapper, did a rap version of Little Red Riding Hood, titled “Start Over.” (He provides a free download from his site here - warning, direct link to MP3 file.) I believe it was a commissioned work for a children’s music collection. Running time is only 2:38 so there’s some quick verbal work going on here.
He presents three variations on the tale; at the chorus part he says, “That’s the story!” and girls insist back, “That ain’t how it happened!” Each time this prompts a retelling, but after the third version he insists it’s nap time for them.
The first verse centers around LRR: how she tries to do good with her deliveries of goodies, how she was foolish to tell a wolf where she was going and about defenseless Grandma, her trip to the cottage, discovery of not-Grandma, and a quick jump to the woodsman saving the day.
The second verse focuses on the BBW: he’s just a wolf, needs to eat, his plotting about if Grandma would be a decent meal. He denies that the wolf was sneaky but was very straightforward about how he had to eat and does so, then cuts off before LRR’s arrival.
The third talks about Grandma and how she’s living alone in the woods, then with the wolf’s arrival at her door, it concentrates on Not-Grandma swallowing her and dressing up. It gives some funny detail on the “What big eyes you have”-type confrontation*, punctuated by the woodsman and his axe again.
*“Little Red Riding Hood, why you giving me grief?
Bodies change as the years’ advance,
Soft features grow unkind to the glance,
And hair sprouts -
All of it for the better for getting you in my mouth!”