Fairy Tales

The Brothers Grimm

Title(s): "Rapunzel"

"The Three Feathers"

"Gretel"

"Cinderella"

Publisher/ Website: All Family Resources, http://www.familymanagement.com/literacy/grimms/grimms-toc.html

Genre: Fairy Tales

Grade Level: 4.5

Summary:

There once lived a girl whose mother died. Her father remarried a wicked mother who moved into the girl's house with her too wicked daughters. They stepmother and stepdaughters quickly made Cinderella into the slave of the house. They made her do all of the cooking and would often dump Cinderella's peas and lentils into the fire where she would have to dig them out of the ashes. The only solace in the poor girl's life was the little tree that she would sit beneath and pray and weep. That tree housed special birds that would help Cinderella when she asked for it.

The king of the land threw a ball to find a wife for his son, the prince. All of the fair ladies of the land were invited, but Cinderella's stepmother would not let her go. With a little help from her special friends, Cinderella made it to the ball dressed in a beautiful gown. The prince instantly fell in love with her and insisted on dancing every dance with her. When it came time for Cinderella to leave, he did not want to leave. She ended up leaving rather hastily, and in the process, left her slipper on the floor.

The prince searched his whole kingdom to find the girl whose foot belonged in the slipper. Both of the step-sisters' feet were too big, so their mother told one to cut off her toes and the other to cut off her heal. They fooled the prince until Cinderella's bird friends told the prince that he had the wrong girl. He eventually found Cinderella whose foot fit perfectly into the slipper. They were wed and lived contently ever after. The step-sisters ended up getting their eyes plucked out in an attempt to get into the wedding.

Who Should Read This Tale:

    I would only recommend this tale to someone who was a little more advanced than the average student and did not like the "happily ever after" fairy tales. I don't really anticipate many girls who would enjoy this tale, but I do think that many young boys would enjoy this side of the Cinderella story.

Possible Problems:

    Because this is a Grimm fairy tale, it is a little bit graphic. I know that many parents would not want their children reading this because of the graphic details in the story. I think that this would be something that I would assign as an optional read rather than a required read just because some parents might not care for their child to be exposed to the violence that is in this fairy tale.

Reaction:

    I found this side of the Cinderella story to be interesting. It definitely showed more about the desperation of the step-sisters than the original version. I am kind of a sucker for happy, predictable stories, so I think that the Disney version of Cinderella is more my style.

 

 

 

Joseph Jacobs

Title(s): "The Three Sillies"

"The Story of the Three Bears"

"The Three Heads of the Well"

"Mr. Miacca"

Publisher/ Website: Authorama: Public Domain Books, http://www.authorama.com/english-fairy-tales-1.html

Genre: Fairy Tale

Grade Level: 3.9

Summary:

Sometimes Tommy Grimes was a good boy but sometimes he was a bad boy. His mother told him not to be a bad boy and go around the corner or else Mr. Miacca would take him. When he didn't listen to her advice, Mr. Miacca did catch him and brought him back to his wife to cook him for dinner. While Mr. Miacca runs to fetch some spices, Tommy Grimes tricks Mrs. Miacca and escapes being dinner. He tries really hard to be good after that day, but the next time he slips up, he is again caught by Mr. Miacca. This time he tricks Mr. Miacca into thinking that the leg of the sofa is his own leg and again escapes from being dinner. He never again went around the corner to get caught by Mr. Miacca.

Who should read this tale:

The message or moral of this fairy tale would be a good one for every child to hear, so I would recommend it for every child.

Possible Problems

Even though Tommy doesn't really cut off his leg, it might be a little unsettling for some children to read about.

Reaction

This isn't my favorite of Jacob's fairy tales, but I really do like Jacob's fairy tales. They are not too gruesome, and the lessons taught in them are pretty easy to understand. I like how most of them end without a definite conclusion. It allows the reader to draw his or her own conclusions.

 

Charles Perrault

Title(s): "Little Red Riding Hood"

    "Sleeping Beauty"

    "Ricky of the Tuft"

"The Master Cat or Puss in Boots"

Publisher/Website: Classics Illustrated, www.classics-illustrated.com

Genre: Fairy Tales

Grade Level: 4.4

Summary:

    Upon his death, a miller left one of his sons a cat. His son was really worried about it because he had nothing and supposed the cat would be good for nothing except to eat and wait to die himself. The cat asked the man if the man would give him a chance to prove himself of value to the man. The only thing the cat asked of the man was for the man to give him a pair of boots to walk in the forest with. The man consented.

    The cat, called Puss, first went into the forest and caught a rabbit in his little drawstring bag. He then went into the king of the land and presented the rabbit to the king, saying that it was from his master the marquis of Carabas. The king was much pleased and appreciated the gesture from the cat's master. Puss continued to catch things and bring them unto the king.

    One day the king took his daughter along the river bank. The cat told his master to go to the river and bathe in it. His master did. When the king drove by the man, the cat explained to him that his master was drowning in the river after having been robbed. The king allowed the man to ride with him in his carriage. All along the ride in the carriage, Puss set it us so the kind would think that the cat's master was indeed the great marquis of Carabas. He had a bunch of peasants tell the king the field they were working in belonged to the marquis of Carabas. He also had harvesters tell the king that the field they were harvesting belonged to the marquis of Carabas. Eventually, Puss tricked an ogre into turning into a mouse, so the cat could eat it. The cat then told the king that the castle once owned by the ogre belonged to the marquis of Carabas. The king was really impressed and offered his daughter to the man. They were wed, and Puss became a figure of great importance.

Who Should Read This Tale:

    I think that little boys especially would like to read this tale. It deals with action and clever maneuvers. I would also recommend this tale to parents who are not too fond of or a little bored with traditional fairy tales.

Possible Problems:

    The whole reason that the man in the story got rich and got the girl is because of the deceitful actions of the cat. It may not be seen as a wholesome read for young children because of the underlying message that you can get anything you want as long as you tell people what they want to know. Another possible problem is that all of Perrault's fairy tales have a written moral at the end. Some children might not like this because the moral given might not have been what they got out of the tale.

Reaction:

    I, personally, thought that this story was really funny. I don't know if that was what it was intended to be, but I thought it was funny. I was interested in continuing my reading because I wanted to know what Puss would do next to trick the king. It also gave me new understanding of the character, Pussinboots, on Shrek.

 

 

 

 

Peter Asbjornsen and Jorgen Moe

Title(s): "The Old Dame and Her Hen"

    "The Two Step Sisters"

    "The Three Princesses of Whiteland"

    "The Three Billy Goats Gruff"    

Publisher/ Website: SurLaLune Fairy Tales, www.surlalunefairytales.com

Genre: Fairy Tales

Grade Level: 4.1

Summary: There was lived a fisherman who, one day, could catch no fish. A head bobbed out of the water and promised the man that he would catch fish aplenty if, in exchange, he would give what was under his wife's girdle to the bobbing head. He agreed but shortly found that his wife was expecting a child. The man was very upset and pled his case before the king. The king told him to bring his child to the king, and he would raise the child. As soon as the boy was born, the king took him to the castle and raised him.

    One day, the boy asked the king if he could go fishing. On his fishing trip, he got carried away to the land called Whiteland. There he met a man who told him that he would meet three princesses standing in the earth up to their necks. The man told him to ignore the first two princesses and speak only to the third princess. He did what the man asked and talked to the third princess. She asked him to go to the castle for three nights. Each night he met a different troll, one with three heads, one with six heads, and one with nine heads. The trolls whipped him every night. When they were done whipping him, he rubbed himself with the ointment in the room and then slew the troll. Each time he defeated a troll, the princesses began to rise out of the earth a little bit more. By the time he defeated the last troll, the princesses were freed from the earth. The third princess wed the man and became his queen.

    The man got very homesick while in Whiteland and begged his wife to let him go back to visit his family. She agreed if he would promise to only listen to his father and not his mother. Before he left, she gave him a ring that granted him two wishes. He first wished to be home. He didn't listen to his wife though, and his second wish brought her to him. She could get back to Whiteland, but he could not.

    The man was so sad to be away from his wife that he set out to find her. He asked the lord of the beasts, the brother of the Lord of the beasts, the birds, and the fishes where to find Whiteland. Finally an old pike knew where to find Whiteland. After discovering the location of Whiteland, the lord of the beasts told the king to ask the three bickering men on the moor for their hat, boots, and cloak. When he put them on, he became invisible and was able to travel to Whiteland where he found his queen right before she was about to marry another. He threw out the other prince and was again with his beautiful queen.

 

Recommended Readers: This fairy tale is a little bit more difficult to understand than other fairy tales, so it would probably be better suited for older readers.

 

Possible Problems: The biggest problem with this fairy tale is, in my opinion, the beginning of the tale. It states that the king saves him from going with the man from the water, but it doesn't really explain how that would save him from the man or how him living with the king would be any better than living with the man from the water. Either way, he is not living with his parents.

 

Reaction: I was honestly a little confused with this fairy tale. The explanation of how he got back to Whiteland was really confusing. I thought there were a lot of steps involved in every process that he went through. I like when things are a little simpler.

 

 

Hans Christian Andersen

Title(s): "The Emperor's New Suit"

    "The Tinder Box"

    "Little Mermaid"

    "The Red Shoes"

Publisher/ Website: A Collection of the World's Fairy Tales, www.fairytalescollection.com

Genre: Fairy Tales

Grade Level: 4.8

Summary: Deep beneath the sea lived the sea king and his six beautiful daughters. They lived in his castle with his mother. Each of the mermaids longed to go up to the surface of the water. Their grandmother told them that they could each go up to the surface on their fifteenth birthday. The youngest daughter most wanted to go up to the top, but she had to wait the longest. One by one all of the sea king's daughters got to go up to the surface. They would all come back down with stories about what it is like. They all agreed, though, that they liked it better at the bottom of the ocean.

    Eventually the youngest mermaid turned fifteen and was able to go to the top of the ocean. She loved the sights of that she saw on the surface. While she was up there, she came up a large ship with a prince aboard. The people on the ship were celebrating his birthday. Unfortunately the ship was caught in a storm, and the prince fell overboard. The little mermaid plunged in the water to save him. Once she caught him, she brought him to shore. When he woke up, he was frightened to see her and did not realize that it was her that had saved him.

    The little mermaid went back down to the ocean quite unhappy. She talked to her grandmother and told her that she wished she could be human. Her grandmother explained that humans lived for a much shorter time. Mermaids usually lived for about three hundred years, and then their bodies just became one with the ocean foam. Although humans did not live as long, they have a soul that lives forever. The little mermaid wanted so badly to be a human and live forever.

    Determined to make her dream a reality, the little mermaid went to see if the sea witch could help her. The sea witch agreed but told her that she would end up being miserable. In exchange for the elixir that would make the little mermaid be able to have legs, the sea witch pulled out the little mermaids tongue so that she, the sea witch, could have the prettiest voice in all of the land. The little mermaid also had to give up seeing her family members again. The sea witch told her that every step she took on her new legs would feel like she was stepping on sharp knives. If the little mermaid did not get the prince to fall madly in love with her, she would never be able to become immortal and would melt into the foam of the sea.

    Even with all of those stipulations, the mermaid still decided to live a life as a human. Once as a human, she found the prince. He asked her what her name was, but she could not answer him for she had not tongue with which to speak. There was still something intriguing about her, though, so the prince took her to his castle. He quickly began to fall in love with her. Soon, though, his parents sent him to another land to meet princess who they hoped he would take for wife. When he met the princess, he thought it was her that had saved him from the storm. He told the little mermaid how happy he was to be reunited with his true love and thanked her for all of her help. She was sad for two reasons. First, she was sad at the thought of losing him, and secondly, she knew that because he was to wed another she would have to die.

    On the day of the wedding, the little mermaid's sisters came to see her. In exchange for their hair, the sea witch had told them how the little mermaid could save herself. They told the little mermaid that if she were to plunge a dagger into the heart of the prince, she would be saved. The little mermaid could not do it, though, and threw herself off of the ship. Instead of becoming sea foam, she became one with the daughters of the air. As a daughter of the air, she will be able to become immortal in three hundred years of probation.

 

Recommended Readers: I think that students who really like the stories of mythology would really enjoy reading this fairy tale. Also any student who is interested in the things of the sea would like reading this tale.

 

Possible Problems: This tale is a little more graphic than most fairy tales. It talks about stuff like cutting someone's tongue out, plunging a dagger in someone's heart, and feeling the pain of being cut by knives every time the mermaid takes a step. Also, this fairy tale talks about life after death and says that every human being becomes immortal after this life. People who do not believe in that type of thing would not to want to read it.

 

Reaction: This is definitely a different tale than the little mermaid that I am used to. I definitely like the Disney version of the Little Mermaid better, but I didn't hate this tale. It did get a little confusing in parts because I didn't really know which character Andersen was referring to. All in all, though, it was a really good story.