Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know Paperback – August 16, 2011

This is a splendid collection of just over two dozen famous fairy tales with an extensive and informative introduction. Mabe appropriately and astutely defines the fairy tale as "a poetic recording of the facts of life, an interpretation by the imagination of its hard conditions, and effort to reconcile the spirit which loves freedom and goodness and beauty with its harsh, bare and disappointing conditions." He goes on to say, that it is "a spontaneous and instinctive endeavor to shape the facts of the world to meet the needs of the imagination." The tales offer a seminal psychology and philosophy. They foretell what will later be discoveries of science, for the same intellectual and imaginative powers that created the tales create science. As children grow, they are given an education. Unfortunately, many children are taught to ignore the poetry of their youth, the imagination, and as a result lose what is necessary to create a better world. Maybe includes tales from Grimm's, the Arabian Nights, French tales, British legends, Hans Christian Andersen, and others. The stories include Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Bears, Beauty and the Beast, The Ugly Duckling, Sleeping Beauty, Jack the Giant Killer, and others. Of course, not all of the more than two dozen tales exhibit the wide imaginative futuristic scope of which Maybe speaks in his introduction, although many of them reflect the facts of life, the moral idea that people should be good and evil behavior results in harm to the evil doer. This is by no means bad, for the tales are told well and the message is important. One Eye, Two Eyes, Three Eyes and The Magic Mirror are good examples. The first is about three sisters; one had one eye, one two, and one three. The sisters with one and three eyes mistreated the "normal" girl with two eyes. They gave her only old clothes and only scraps of food. However, a fairy came and helped her. She goes through a couple of adventures and ultimately charms a prince who marries her. The two sisters become very poor and ugly. The visit their sister's palace and are treated well by her. The Magic Mirror is the famous Snow-white story. Like the prior tale, it is told in a straight forward manner without any humor, but with the same morality message. This time it is a step-mother who mistreats the good child. This version also ends with Snow-white marrying a prince. The step-mother comes to the wedding ceremony and is so overcome with jealousy that her feet begin to burn, and while she is dancing at the wedding ceremony, she dies from the burns.

The next time someone talks to me about how violent today’s movies and video games are and how bad of an example they are for our kids, and how they are wrongly shaping our youth, I am going to tell them to read this book from the 1920’s.This retelling of old fairy tales, pulled from various sources, hideously abridged, and compiled in 1905, contain awkward and archaic 19th century words and phrases which I honestly feel is the result of bad translation.Typically, fairy tales are supposed to teach us a lesson or two, but after reading this version of these immortal tales, I think they might send the wrong message to young readers today, like:• Beware of stepmothers, wicked fairies, and jealous sisters they are all evil and usually possess some sort of magic ability.• Sisters are always jealous of the younger, prettier sister. (Ok, that one might be true)• Most women are vain.• Mirrors are magical and have spirits within them that are bound to servitude of the owner.• It’s ok to be the only girl living in a house full of male dwarves, your virginity is safe.• It’s ok to eat all of the food on the dinner table, even if it is not your house.. if you’re pretty.• It is not the least bit suspicious to find a palace, unmatched by any other in the known world to be built in one night.• Shortly after marrying a princess, the king will die and you will inherit the kingdom and live happily ever after.• It is okay to kill giants without provocation as long as you send their heads to the king.• It is okay to be lazy if you treat others with kindness and respect.• If you are not as pretty as others feel they are, you will be teased & abused.There are plenty of other "lessons", but you get the point..So how did we ever survive growing up, with tales such as these? LOLWhile there were a few "boring & preachy" tales, it was still a nice, light read and worth it to see where today's versions (mostly Disney) actually came from and how they have adapted.

Took me back to my childhood. Lovely book. I don’t think the children live with the fairies like we did as children, the world was more whimsical in those days.

Loved being told fairy tales as a child, however this book in places was very dark and almost depressing with the way the stories were retold

First off, this is free on a Kindle, so that gets it a star straight off.I found this book more of an interest than a good read. Not something you may want to read cover to cover, but something to satisfy your curiosity on old fairy tales. Some of them I read corrected me in what I thought was the true tale, but most were what I expected with some I had never heard of.

I enjoyed recognising some stories I must have heard or read when I was young that I'd completely forgotten about. The writing isn't great (all tell and no show), the characters all behave completely bizarrely, violence and sexism are rife, and the morals are questionable at best - but it's all strangely charming anyway. A worthwhile free classic.

I thought I would read the old fairy stories told to me in my youth, and those I had seen on tv, on the stage and in films; it was a pleasant surprise to read these old takes in more detail and without the necessary happy ending. Most stories I knew but some were unknown to me but enjoyable. Very difficult book to put down.