Author Soman Chainani’s new collection, “Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales” retells Brothers Grimm stories with a more diverse cast of characters. Hoping to create “a reparative to the Disney upbringing” and the straight, white world of “Harry Potter,” Chainani used each story to take on a representation not typically shown in the fairy tale world.

The author of the best-selling “The School for Good and Evil” series, Chainani also discusses the upcoming movie adaptation, coming to Netflix in 2022 and starring Kerry Washington and Charlize Theron. Watch the “Salon Talks” interview above to learn more about the process behind “Beasts and Beauty,” and carving out a more realistically representative niche in children’s literature.