Can you come up with a fairy tale without google?

[Mom-ninja.]

The other day I overheard a mom ask another mom (a teacher) if she could help her because she was stuck in trying to think of a fairy tale for her first grade son's book report.

 

The assignment was to rewrite a known fairy tale into the child's own words and draw pictures. The mom could not think of a fairy tale. The teacher's response was, "Um, a fairy tale? Hum, I don't know. I'd just look on the internet. Have you googled it yet?"

 

At this point I turned and named five off the top of my head. The teacher mom said, "Wow. You're good."

 

I really didn't think it was a great feat to be able to name fairy tales without looking them up. :huh:

 

Am I like a literary genius? :tongue_smilie: :smilielol5:

[Denise in Florida]

That made me laugh.  I don't know why the old classic fairy tales just aren't popular anymore. People don't seem to remember the old nursery rhymes either.  :mellow:

[Truscifi]

Many of them have been made into Disney movies, and people don't think of them as fairy tales anymore.

[Chris in VA]

That is just what I call common knowledge.

Sad that we don't have that in common anymore!

 

Sheesh. Life w/o fairytales. Sad!

[Farrar]

I know this is really judgmental, but I'm embarrassed for that woman.  All I can think is that the internet has robbed us of our ability to think for ourselves.  Which way is north...  let me double check on Google maps.

[Indian summer]

I remember a woman telling me that she avoided reading fairy tales to her kids because she didn't want her daughtersa expecting a prince to rescue them. As if that were the only theme in fairy tales! Sheesh! lol!

 

Yeah, I could definitely name at least a dozen off the top of my head, buti still know all the nursery rhymes my mother tought me 30some years ago.

[SKL]

I agree, maybe they don't call them "fairy tales."  They must know the basic ones!

 

Or maybe they are thinking they have to actually have fairies in them, like Peter Pan / Tinkerbell?

 

But then again - don't all fairy tale books have titles like, say, "Favorite Fairy Tales" on the cover?

 

I could probably list 20 without even pausing, and I haven't read a fairy tale in quite a while.

[SKL]

I had a Japanese colleague who said yer mom never read her any pretend stories because she didn't believe it was good for kids.  To each her own, I guess.

 

I do think it's sad if they are afraid to read them because the kids might be warped.  Or maybe that is what's wrong with me....

[HRAAB]

.

Am I like a literary genius? :tongue_smilie: :smilielol5:

 

Sure you are.  Cause that makes me one, too. 

 

My youngest are 13, and we still read fairy tales together.

[Alessandra]

My idea of a fun evening is browsing in The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales, so I would be prepared with off the cuff, witty, erudite comments, should anyone IRL ever ask. Still waiting....

[Stacia]

Years ago, I was surprised to learn that both my nephew & a friend of ours (both kids are smart from well-educated families) didn't know that Puss in Boots was a fairy tale. Both thought he was a character created for the Shrek movies.

 

 

[PrairieSong]

Wow...just wow. Sleeping Beauty? Cinderella? Princess and the Pea? I could go on. People don't know these? Do they just think they are all Disney movies? I could name lots more. It makes me feel sad that someone could not think of ONE.

[Belacqua]

Maybe she knows those stories as folktales? And, as SKL suggested, thinks "fairy tales" need actual fairies? Could be.

 

And if they warp children's minds, I guess I'm guilty. We tended to favor the Slavic stories, and they're often quite gruesome. 

[Tranquility7]

Well I suppose we all have gaps.

:iagree:  Most definitely.  I got an excellent education for the most part, but I know I have plenty of gaps.  I read a lot as a child, but never anything like fairy tales.  They just didn't interest me, or my parents (who did in fact read aloud to me).  *shrug*

 

Sometimes I am rather self-conscious about my gaps, since I am far too sensitive about what others think of me and I'm afraid I'll be judged if I ask a question that reveals one of my huge gaps.

 

I'm thankful I get to fill in some of my gaps while I educate my kiddos.  I'm even learning to appreciate fairy tales, at least somewhat (sometimes they are good, but other times after reading one I seriously wonder what the appeal is :huh:). 

 

Anyway, I'd love to think my kids won't have gaps, but they will.  They will just be different from the ones I have.

[shanvan]

Years ago, I was surprised to learn that both my nephew & a friend of ours (both kids are smart from well-educated families) didn't know that Puss in Boots was a fairy tale. Both thought he was a character created for the Shrek movies.

I suddenly have the urge to read Puss in Boots to my 16 yr old Ds now--just in case.

[Stacia]

...

[shanvan]

Love this version: :D

 

My Ds is soo going to thank you for this---when he is done looking at me like maybe I've lost my mind and forgotten his age.

[Gil]

I remember staying in side during 1st and 2nd grade due to disrespectfully refusing to listen/read/or discuss fairytales with the class. I may have also made a girl cry when I called her stupid for liking fairy tales so much...I remember having to write her an apology before I could go to recess and my teacher made me use correct spelling...

 

Anyway, as far as Fairy tales go, I just don't get the appeal of them, they were all rather....boring.

 

ETA: I can, however, name a few.

[Stacia]

(To shanvan:)

 

Hey, I'm older than him & still like picture books. :lol:  (I could see how it wouldn't thrill a teen, though.)

[Gil]

Oh I just realized that I don't know the difference between an old story and a "fairy tale". I am familiar with a lot of old stories like Puss in Boots (I didn't know he was a Shrek Character!) and the one about the boy with the cow, but what makes a story a fairytales exactly?

[shanvan]

Actually, that's a really classist judgement I just made. I would expect someone who had had access to a decent and uninterrupted education to know a fairy tale or two. Lots of people don't have that access. Scrap my comment.

​Idk, I think it really is a chasm-one that separates people who have had the access and those who haven't.  Doesn't mean anything more than that.  It's a chasm.  It's there, whatever the reason.

 

​ETA: There is also quite a chasm separating me from extremely wealthy people.  I'm sure they operate in worlds I know very little about.  I think that chasm might be getting wider too.

[Ausmumof3]

Yep, you're right, but the way I said it sounded snotty.

 

I KNOW the chasm is getting wider!

Hard not to know that in aus right now

[Guest]

Seventeen.

Didn't break a sweat.

I'm old. 

And I read them to my son in our homeschool.

 

[SKL]

I wonder if some people think fairy tales are only for girls?  The OP said it was a boy who needed to write a report....

[Melissa in Australia]

I find it amazing that someone could not even think of one fairy tale.

 

I was a bookworm when I was a kid, and only had a limited amount of books. I read the complete collections of both Grimm's and Anderson a million times.

[Mrs Mungo]

The other day I overheard a mom ask another mom (a teacher) if she could help her because she was stuck in trying to think of a fairy tale for her first grade son's book report.

 

The assignment was to rewrite a known fairy tale into the child's own words and draw pictures. The mom could not think of a fairy tale. The teacher's response was, "Um, a fairy tale? Hum, I don't know. I'd just look on the internet. Have you googled it yet?"

 

At this point I turned and named five off the top of my head. The teacher mom said, "Wow. You're good."

 

I really didn't think it was a great feat to be able to name fairy tales without looking them up. :huh:

 

Am I like a literary genius? :tongue_smilie: :smilielol5:

Cinderella, Snow White, The Princess and the Pea, The Frog Prince, The Nightingale, The Dancing Princesses, The Snow Queen, Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Hansel and Gretel, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Red Riding Hood...I can easily name 20 more without even taxing my brain. Do these people not read?

[Gil]

If they thought fairy tales had to include fairies, they probably wouldn't have taken the OP's list seriously. I doubt every one she named had fairies in them.

 

I know my parents read to me, but I cannot recall if they read me fairy tales. They must have read me the Princess and the Pea because I remember that one very well. Mainly I remember my dad reading me fables.

 

One of my gaps is children's songs. Besides Old McDonald, BINGO, and The Wheels on the Bus I'm pretty hopeless. My kid went to a story hour and all the children were singing that Sailor Went to See song. Neither of us could sing along. Nursery rhymes? Pretty pathetic track record there, too.

I always liked fables, too. I remember a ton of those and we read Aesop fables even now but 'fairytales' uh...not really. I also am pretty bad about children songs...I know a couple of songs, but thats about it. I doubt even my boys know a lot 'kids songs'--they probably learned some when they were in school but they know a lot of commercial songs word for word.

[Mrs Mungo]

I know a bazillion kid songs because I worked at a summer camp in college. :P

[Garga]

Oh I just realized that I don't know the difference between an old story and a "fairy tale". I am familiar with a lot of old stories like Puss in Boots (I didn't know he was a Shrek Character!) and the one about the boy with the cow, but what makes a story a fairytales exactly?

This could be the crux of the issue. I've never heard them called "old stories." They just *are* fairy tales. That's what these "old stories" are called.

 

When I google "define: fairy tale" this is what I get: a children's story about magical and imaginary beings and lands.

synonyms: folk tale, folk story, traditional story, myth, legend, fantasy, fable More

 

Many fairy tales have magic in them to some degree. Maybe that's the thing--magic?

 

A couple of weeks ago my 15 year old nephew visited. He brought a computer game with him and we played it together. It was about fairy tale characters who were somehow stuck in New York city and solving a murder mystery. My nephew kept saying over and over, "How did the maker of this know to use all this stuff?" and he didn't know who half the characters were. I liked the game, but it wasn't that hard to "use this stuff." All it took to create the game was a rudimentary knowledge of the names of fairy tale characters and their traits.

 

I pulled out one of my 25 fairy tale books and started showing them to my nephew and then ordered him a book for his own. He knew the Disney movie fairy tale characters, but nothing else. And he was delighted to hear that many fairy tales have grisly endings (or beginnings or middles.)

[Katy]

This thread reminds me of that Albert Einstein quote I keep seeing going around Pinterest:
“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.â€

 

[Onceuponatime]

Actually, that's a really classist judgement I just made. I would expect someone who had had access to a decent and uninterrupted education to know a fairy tale or two. Lots of people don't have that access. Scrap my comment.

It didn't occur to me at first either. Then I remembered my friend who grew up in  Gypsy- American migrant culture. She married a military man which is how we met, because dh was in the military. She had two small children and was learning all the traditional children's songs and stories that we take for granted, with her children, for the first time. She loved Winnie-the-Pooh. It was not a case of lack of intelligence, but lack of opportunity.

[Catherine]

This could be the crux of the issue. I've never heard them called "old stories." They just *are* fairy tales. That's what these "old stories" are called.

 

When I google "define: fairy tale" this is what I get: a children's story about magical and imaginary beings and lands.

synonyms: folk tale, folk story, traditional story, myth, legend, fantasy, fable More

 

Many fairy tales have magic in them to some degree. Maybe that's the thing--magic?

 

A couple of weeks ago my 15 year old nephew visited. He brought a computer game with him and we played it together. It was about fairy tale characters who were somehow stuck in New York city and solving a murder mystery. My nephew kept saying over and over, "How did the maker of this know to use all this stuff?" and he didn't know who half the characters were. I liked the game, but it wasn't that hard to "use this stuff." All it took to create the game was a rudimentary knowledge of the names of fairy tale characters and their traits.

 

I pulled out one of my 25 fairy tale books and started showing them to my nephew and then ordered him a book for his own. He knew the Disney movie fairy tale characters, but nothing else. And he was delighted to hear that many fairy tales have grisly endings (or beginnings or middles.)

Tolkien wrote an essay "On Fairy Stories" that answers this question (What is a fairy tale?). You can find it in a pdf if you google, but here is a very helpful blog post I found that lays out his argument well:

 

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/12/05/j-r-r-tolkien-on-fairy-stories/

[Chris in VA]

I think some knowledge of fairy tales can be gleaned from our American culture, without even reading them or having someone read them to you as a child. So I find it odd that two people couldn't even name one. 

 

Also, if the OP's two friends WENT to school here, SURELY they were exposed.

 

 

[Matryoshka]

Cinderella, Snow White, The Princess and the Pea, The Frog Prince, The Nightingale, The Dancing Princesses, The Snow Queen, Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Hansel and Gretel, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Red Riding Hood...I can easily name 20 more without even taxing my brain. Do these people not read?

 

And, the vast majority of Disney movies are based on traditional fairy tales, which permeate pop culture to an almost unimaginable degree.  So, they don't read and have never seen a Disney movie? 

 

There are currently not one but two prime-time, network series based on traditional fairy tales...

 

I have to go with the other hypothesis that these people somehow have no idea what "fairy tale" means...

 

[freeindeed]

I love fairy tales. I could name a vast amount of them with no problem.

[Onceuponatime]

Although those are sort of like fairy tales aren't they? 

 

We've read a lot of fairy tales, folktales, etc.  I think they are among the most entertaining stories out there.  We still read them.

 

Come to think of it though, we didn't read fairy tales in school.  That was something I read at home.  I had a book of nursery rhymes at home (never read those in school).

What on earth DO schools teach?  Geesh...

 

Yep. I don't remember getting fairy tales or nursery rhymes in school either, except "A Tisket, a Tasket, a Green and Yellow Basket" or "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush." I think those were popular because they could be used in playground games. My mother bought us a set of Collier's children's classics that had fairy tales, folk tales, fables, and nursery rhymes, which we wore out.   Versions of fairy tales were often incorporated into Saturday morning cartoons. Are they still?

 

I could easily see someone easily missing out on many fairy tales just because of the kind of parents they had, the reading culture they were (or were not) exposed to, and the particular shows that were chosen to watch.

[Anne in CA]

I can think of a bunch. My mom read me fairy tales and Bible stories as a child and I read them to my kids too. The Disney versions are far from the stories my mother read to me.

[BarbecueMom]

I've been trying to comprehend why parents would send their child to a local daycare called "The Gingerbread House". I guess if your only exposure to gingerbread houses is from Christmas baking, it wouldn't occur to you that it's also known as the scene of a child kidnapping and attempted cannibalism.

[FaithManor]

I agree with the poster that said they've been made into animated movies enough that the original source material is not remembered as "classic". Disney killed it. :)

 

I remember quite a few by Hans Christian Anderson and those aren't quite as well known as Grimm's.

 

Of course, if you ask people "and the rest of the story" about fairytales most have no idea that Snow White and Charming made the "Regina" (to coin OUAT) dance on coals or fire or something until she died, or that Cinderella got her revenge, or any number of other gruesome details.

 

On that note, did anybody see "Hansel and Gretel" with the guy that played Hawk in the Avengers? Was it good? I'm clueless but I like that actor so a review would be helpful because I really hate spending two hours watching a terrible movie.

 

Our culture as of late has been woefully under exposed to the unedited classics.

[Matryoshka]

Yeah I was surprised that the Little Mermaid did not originate from Disney. 

 

Uh, no.  And not only can't she talk, but every step she takes is like daggers in her feet. And at the end the other girl (who is not the witch, just a princess from the neighboring kingdom) marries the prince, so the mermaid asks the witch if she can return to being a mermaid and who tells her the only way to do it is to kill the prince in his sleep, but she can't go through with it so she commits suicide by jumping overboard but the "happy ending" is that she doesn't turn to seafoam (since mermaids don't have souls) but gets to be some helper spirit in the sky (but that's still not a soul or heaven).

 

I've always thought Hans Christian Anderson was in some serious need of some Prozac, and I think this may be one fairy tale that Disney actually improved on.  I mean, really?  His idea of 'happy ending' was usually 'and then everyone died.'

[Onceuponatime]

 

 

I've always thought Hans Christian Anderson was in some serious need of some Prozac, and I think this may be one fairy tale that Disney actually improved on.  I mean, really?  His idea of 'happy ending' was usually 'and then everyone died.'

 

 

But, but, but....They died for LOVE.  I believe at one time this was considered the height of romance. Then again, even romance meant something it doesn't mean today.

[Onceuponatime]

Yeah I didn't read the original until I read it to my kids.

 

I like some of the Disney versions.  I see nothing wrong with creating different versions.  Especially if it keeps Fairy Tales alive. 

 

My BIL sent me a book in English with the very traditional telling of Fairly Tales.  I couldn't read them to my kids when they were little.  They are quite dark.  My guess is they were never intended to be children's stories.

 

I read somewhere that they were children's stories created to scare children on purpose, cautionary tales if you will. Things have changed more than we realize.

[vonfirmath]

Wow...just wow. Sleeping Beauty? Cinderella? Princess and the Pea? I could go on. People don't know these? Do they just think they are all Disney movies? I could name lots more. It makes me feel sad that someone could not think of ONE.

 

When DS was 4 years old, I bought a book of fairy tales as I realized we hadn't actually read any. We've read... a few. But it is not a favorite book to pick up by any means.  I don't think my 2.75 year old girl has heard even one!

 

Nursery rhymes we do more of.

[trulycrabby]

Am I like a literary genius? :tongue_smilie: :smilielol5:

Why yes! Yes you are! :)

[SKL]

I've been trying to comprehend why parents would send their child to a local daycare called "The Gingerbread House". I guess if your only exposure to gingerbread houses is from Christmas baking, it wouldn't occur to you that it's also known as the scene of a child kidnapping and attempted cannibalism.

 

LOL, my kids went to a daycare called "Le Chaperon Rouge" (Little Red Riding Hood).  I thought it was a little odd, but the owner (who is an immigrant) said it was about the protective nature of the red riding hood that the little girl was given by her grandma.  :)

[vonfirmath]

Yeah I didn't read the original until I read it to my kids.

 

I like some of the Disney versions.  I see nothing wrong with creating different versions.  Especially if it keeps Fairy Tales alive. 

 

My BIL sent me a book in English with the very traditional telling of Fairly Tales.  I couldn't read them to my kids when they were little.  They are quite dark.  My guess is they were never intended to be children's stories.

 

As I recall from my college class on Children's Literature, the woods around medieval villages were quite dangerous.  Fairy tales were moral tales designed to keep children out of the woods, etc.

[SKL]

Not every family watches the Disney cartoon movies either.  Personally I have no use for them - and besides, they are very expensive.   Other people have bought a few for my kids over the years, and we've watched them once or twice.  Some of them are much better than others.  Many of them I've never seen in my life.  And I think I turned out OK.

 

My kids have had many books of fairy tales (and other international folk tales).  They've heard/read many versions of the same fairy tale.  I am looking forward to having them read the original versions, though.  I did so when I was taking a children's lit course in college.  Rather eye-opening.

[shukriyya]

This is a great thread! Fairy tales are so nourishing to that aspect of the psyche that is a wilderness country, overgrown with trees and wildflowers, long grasses, craggy mountains, ancient boulders, loamy earth, bears, songbirds, wandering streams...and we all have a wild spaciousness like that somewhere in our being that is so important to visit once in awhile. So they're just as good for adults too. At least that's how I view them. Neglecting to include them in a child's experience is a sobering commentary on the soul sucking aspect of the cultural overdrive. But even the oft reviled Disney versions are offering a child some glimpse of transformation and that seems to be how fairytales are manifesting these days. The important thing is giving them an opportunity to develop a relationship with the archetypes.

[SKL]

As I recall from my college class on Children's Literature, the woods around medieval villages were quite dangerous.  Fairy tales were moral tales designed to keep children out of the woods, etc.

 

The ongoing messages include: be wary of smooth talkers, think before you act, if you follow the wrong crowd you start to become like them, don't bite the hand that feeds you, true love is forever, siblings will be stronger if they look out for each other, be considerate of strangers as well as friends, hard work / industry makes you happier and more attractive as a person, choose soft words, have a little faith when things look bleak, greed will make you poorer, kindness will make you richer, and much more.  I am so glad that my life experience always included fairy tales (even if they were bought at a close-out sale!).  Thanks, mom!

[J-rap]

Speaking of things today's children might not know...

 

Our town put on the play 'Wizard of Oz' recently, and one of my friends (a teacher) said that as the class was discussing the play, she learned that only one child in her class even knew the story and had seen the old movie with Judy Garland...