Those Fairy Tales..

[HejKatt]

Warning - this is just a rant, and perhaps a PSA for those who haven't read Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves for a long time..

 

We bought a CD which narrates the Ali Baba story in Mandarin, and settled down with DS to listen/read along. About a few pages in the book, DS starts getting concerned because the story gets tense, and he is afraid what might happen. I pause the recording, flip through the next few pages, and then announce that I will read the book out instead (so I can ad-lib over the many deaths that are coming).

 

For those of you who had forgotten, like me, here you go:

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/alibaba.html

 

Bodies cut into quarters, death by scalding, stabbings.. ick! I don't know what sanitized version I heard as a youngster, because all I remembered from the story was "Open/Close sesame". Or perhaps I was not as sensitive as ds, who gets upset when he hears what really happened to the first 2 little pigs in the "The Three Little Pigs".

 

I know we had a discussion on the K-8 board about how fairy tales weren't really for the young, and also how life was grimmer. But even I am losing my stomach for reading them. I'd rather take part in our WTM discussions where we debate over whether the implied euthanasia in LOF Dogs was necessary. :tongue_smilie:

[LeslieAnneLevine]

When my son was younger (maybe around 5) I had a similar experience. It was in the Usborne reading series and it was also Ali Baba & the 40 Thieves. I read an edited-on-the-fly version and then I put it up on the top of a cabinet where it sat for a long time. :lol: It just was too gruesome for me to read to him at that age.

 

When he was 8 I read some darker fairy tale picture books to him, like The Little Match Girl and Bluebeard (which I only mention to make it clear that I am not a proponent of sanitized children's lit--and not because I think every 8 year-old should hear those stories, it depends on the child).