Shrek Forever After

Today, I read Shrek Forever After, an adaptation for learners of English of the movie of the same name, the fourth in the Shrek series. As the story begins, Shrek and Fiona are married and have children. Because Fiona has received True Love's Kiss from Shrek, she has stopped changing between princess and ogre and is now an ogre all the time. But Rumpelstiltskin wants to cause mischief in order to get power in Far Far Away for himself.

Rumpelstiltskin realizes Shrek's vulnerability. Shrek has lost his old life in which he was free to do as he pleased. Rumpelstiltskin promises Shrek a day of his old life if Shrek will give Rumpelstiltskin another day in return. Shrek falls for the trick.

It soon turns out that the day Rumpelstiltskin takes from him is the day he was born. So Shrek doesn't really exist in this new reality. Donkey says that, if he gets True Love's Kiss from Fiona before 12 o'clock, he can bring back the old reality. Unfortunately, Fiona doesn't know him, so she cannot give him True Love's Kiss. Rumpelstiltskin enlists the help of the Pied Piper, and it seems that everything will soon fall into his grasp. Is this the end of Shrek and Fiona?

Shrek is a very interesting series, because several different fairy tales are incorporated into the stories in an interesting way. Rumpelstiltskin and the Pied Piper are two totally separate stories. The emphasis on 12 o'clock is reminiscent of Cinderella. Watching Shrek can be an interesting education or refresher on traditional stories.

This book I read today is in the Popcorn ELT Readers series from Scholastic. The series is designed for people in the early stages of learning English, so the vocabulary and grammar are easy, and the books are quite short. The present book is 1068 words long. It is a Level 3 book (the highest level in the series), and books at Level 1 and Level 2 are even shorter. All the books are based on movies, TV series, or classic children's literature, so they are easy to understand even if you don't understand some of the words. In total, I was able to find 52 different titles across the three levels (http://www.ricpublications.jp/cat/New_ELT_Readers_Catalogue_2015.pdf).