The youngest of our 11 children recently turned 8 years old. She innocently informed me that I'm the oldest mother among her friends and that the pretty, silver threads in my hair will be just right for our soon to arrive, first grandchild to see. She appreciates that I keep my hair long and likes to put in up in fancy styles with special barrettes while I read fairy tales at night. Our favorites are from The Golden Book of Fairy Tales, illustrated by Adrienne Ségur. My mother introduced these to me, thus instilling a love of beautiful art and literature. Much of life's deep meaning can be found in these tales and what happiness is found in sharing them!
Little Old Woman
Sleeping Beauty and The Rose of Christmas
Rapunzel
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. When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking.
~Albert Einstein
What is your favorite fairy tale and why is it meaningful to you?
Call your mother and God's Peace!
11 comments:
My favorite fairy tale is Tommy Goes To The Big Dance. Kinda like Cinderella, but more far-fetched.
"IZZO-nly a game" said the Wolverine to the SPARTAN.
"Silly skunk bear! IZZO-nly the meaning of life!"
I love a lot of them:
The Three Little Pigs - because it demonstrated how hard work builds strength in the end.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin teaches we should always keep our word.
And I always cry with The Little Match Girl..
BABETTE! I hope you weren't trying to hide from me, IT WILL NEVER WORK. Can't stay now. Back later. Love you.
Miz S
Funny, I've been thinking about fairy tales a lot this week, as we just saw a very charming interpretation of Snow White at a local community theater, and I read a lot of fairy tales this week after school to the girls.
A certain school that I told you about earlier, emphasizes fairy tales in the first grade. It turns out, we got a good lottery number, and daughter #! might indeed be attending next year. She will most definitely have a spot within the next year or two.
So I am happy about that and thinking about fairy tales with a renewed interest.
In high school, I was on the speech team and my category was Storytelling. Both years the theme was fairy tales.
Do I have a favorite? You know, I'll have to get back to you on that. I just like the original tales, not the disney versions. The books I prepared from during my speech team years. They were so much more interesting.
I like that you are sharing these little snippets of your sweet home of home life here. Thank you.
The Ugly Duckling is a tale that is really easy to relate to as a child. It's almost a cliche, but the tale itself is beautiful.
When I did storytellling I liked The Red Shoes, but I can't remember why.
One year we did the Hans Christian Anderson tales. The other year we did the Grimms brother tales.
I like "Sleeping Beauty." Have you ever read fairy tales in their original forms? Some are pretty gruesome.
Happy to see you're blogging again! Thanks for commenting on mine. :)
Baucis and Philemon. I know they are myths and not 'fairy tales', but I always loved the story.
I've been trying and trying to think of my favorite, and I think I've finally chosen "The Three Little Pigs." Why? I think, mainly because the children become so involved with it with its predictability, they can chime right in. My own children loved it as well as all the 10,000 first graders I ever taught. Well, it seems like 10,000.
I absolutely LOVE fairy tales! Not those insipid Disney versions, or any kind of abridged pap, but the genuine article, dripping with blood and grisly revenge.
(Okay, I do love the Disney animated fairy tales, but in the back of my mind I'm angry because they're so sanitary.)
Sleeping Beauty is my favorite. This could change at any time as I re-read them in various moods.
East of the Sun and West of the Moon is another favorite. I'm also a mythology fanatic and fortunately the plotlines overlap a lot.
Bonnie -- I have this lovely book! Absolutely stunning, and I still take it out and get lost in it every time I clean out the upstairs bookcase. My favorite fairy tale is Hansel and Gretel, mostly because they get to wander around in the woods or maybe because I sang Gretel's part in the opera when young. Not surprisingly, I really like the illustrations in The Snow Queen.
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