Fairy Tale Failure

While just browsing the 398.2's I came across an interesting title: Sleepless Beauty. Written by Frances Minters and illustrated by G. Brian Karas, it is a modern, urban take on the traditional Sleeping Beauty. It has all the same elements of the story, but instead of being specific about the spindle of a spinning wheel, Beauty just has to prick her finger on anything. And the one to break the one hundred year long curse will be a rock star. The story was very funny, very cute, and had an interesting twist at the end. The text was in rhyming quatrains. Using rhyme in my own story is tricky though. Rhymes can be too cliche, too shallow. But other times, like this book, they can add just the right sound to the story. Throughout the book there is a drawn character of a black sax player, a busker. Given the modern city setting, he appears as a modern bard or storyteller. Taking in the consideration of a muscian telling the story, the rhyme scheme makes sense. Songs sometimes rhyme; rhymes give a musical quality to the text.

So what did I take from this book to use in my own? The subtle, and not subtle, ways it changes the tale to modernity is one. Also I know that my book will not rhyme, but if the book turns to a series (which is entirely possible) another of my stories would do well in rhyme.