Friday, September 24, 2010

Read a Banned Book: Grimm's Fairy Tales



The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm All-New Third Edition

If you also believe challenged and banned books are worth reading, here's another fun tidbit for today from 10 surprisingly banned books by Pam Gaulin, here is number 10:

Grimm's Fairy Tales

Fairy tales have always clung to their precarious place in children's literature. On one side, readers have fairy-tale purists who lament the morals lost in fairy tales that have been too cleaned up. Others object to any violence in fairy tales. A couple of California school districts found a whole new reason to ban "Grimm's Fairy Tales" in 1989: misuse of alcohol. Little Red Riding Hood's basket for her grandmother includes wine. Maybe it wasn't a California red.
And, really, with the fairy tales I read every day it is really not surprising that more fairy tales aren't banned.  Murder, incest, abuse, etc.  I wouldn't watch movies of most of this stuff, but I've made a life out of reading it all the time.  :)  Wine in the wicker basket is the least of the issues...and I don't drink myself.

I inwardly cringe a little when casual acquaintances think my books are for their young children's reading.  Sleeping Beauties: Sleeping Beauty and Snow White Tales From Around the World has many tales I wouldn't share with anyone under eight at the minimum. 

The Annotated Brothers Grimm (The Annotated Books)
Grimms' Tales for Young and Old: The Complete Stories

2 comments:

  1. Seriously, it wasn't The Juniper Tree that got it banned? This is a book that involves murder and dismemberment fairly frequently, let alone an instance of cannibalism, and they ban it for having a story which includes in passing a reference to giving an old lady a bottle of wine? I just don't get some people's censorship standards...

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  2. Fairy Tales are not for the faint of heart as many are cautionary tales... And someone got upset over wine? Quite thoughtful of Little Red Riding Hood to take a tipple to her grandma. And most likely medicinal too..

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