When I was little I LOVED fairy tales.
My dad, luckily for me, is a used bookseller (*ahem* a seller of used books), so he would bring home all sorts of interesting and rare books. We ended up with nearly a complete set of Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books – The Blue Fairy Book, The Red Fairy Book, The Brown Fairy Book… there were twelve of them in all and we were only missing a couple. The blue one was mainly well-known stories like Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, you get the idea; but the later ones were all new to me. I could sit for hours reading fairy tales even when I was thirteen. (I still would, honestly.)
I know I always say it was Tolkien who got me into fantasy, but really it was all those fairy tales. I credit them with my wretchedly active imagination.
(All right, so it’s only wretched at 2 AM and I’m trying to sleep. Other than that it’s okay.)
Why should you (and your kids) read fairy tales?
- Life lessons
- Hope
- Shared mythology
- What’s possible
- Cultural appreciation
- …
Read the entire list of ten reasons to read fairy tales here: 10 Reasons Why Kids Need to Read Non-Disney Fairy Tales. I can’t recommend this article highly enough!
Note to self: Never use “fairy” so much in a post again. The word looks ridiculous now.
Benita J. Thompson 