A Collection of Fabulous Fascinating Fairy Tales Volume 5 : Fairy Tales for children age 5-7 in Review / Write / Read Club (Indie & Self-Published)

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Mar 01, 2024 Ed Morawski rated it did not like it

Questionable Age Rating

I’m a little old to be reading fairytales but I do have four grandchildren aged 5, 6, 10, and 16 and I can tell you I would never read any of THESE ‘fairytales’ to any of them. In my opinion these stories are wildly inappropriate for 5-7 year olds.

The first story ‘Albert the Adventurous’ encourages three brothers to go explore down a well. Does anyone else think that’s a bad idea? Then the two older brothers leave their younger one down there to die! And they use cyanide p Questionable Age Rating

I’m a little old to be reading fairytales but I do have four grandchildren aged 5, 6, 10, and 16 and I can tell you I would never read any of THESE ‘fairytales’ to any of them. In my opinion these stories are wildly inappropriate for 5-7 year olds.

The first story ‘Albert the Adventurous’ encourages three brothers to go explore down a well. Does anyone else think that’s a bad idea? Then the two older brothers leave their younger one down there to die! And they use cyanide poison to kill an animal or something living down there. At one point the king orders his subjects to bully a young boy! Is this what we want to teach our 5 year olds? Words like fratricide and succession are used.

The second story begins with ‘then one day their father fell gravely ill as he caught a fever. He was ill for many days, and despite the best efforts of the village doctor he died. Now he was gone, the three brothers were left to fend for themselves’. Not exactly cheerful stuff. Oh it gets much worse when they meet their neighbor: ‘Woodwoses were wild men who loved to feast on human flesh, once they had baked the flesh in a human meat pie.’ Yes, they eat kids. My grandkids would have nightmares for months after reading this stuff.
More: ‘ the woodwose roared. “Those scheming little boys, whom I was planning to kill and eat for my morning breakfast, conspired to make me kill my own daughters and eat them up instead!’

Another story teaches about marriage:
“You see, I threw that rose petal down from the tower, and the first gentleman to pick up the falling rose petal wins her hand in marriage”. What is the message? Marriage is so insignificant that it should be decided by a petal thrown on the ground?
In the rest of the stories our little tykes learn about execution: ‘they urged the King to put Patrick out of this world. “Father, have that disgusting Patrick executed” his eldest son said to him. “We don’t want him as our new brother-in-law”. If you don’t like someone just kill them?
More poisoning: ‘Theodora then took out the cyanide, and fed him with a spoonful of poison.’
Over the 590 pages our 5 year old children get to learn about stealing, smuggling, swindling, horsewhips(?!), and barmaids. I’d like to be there when you explain to your five year old what a barmaid or horsewhip is.
I can in no way recommend this book for children 5 - 7 years old. So now I have to step back, take a deep breath and figure out how to rate this ‘children’s' book.The stories are not exactly bad, but I don’t think they send the right message to kids in or barely out of kindergarten. I think the suggested age group for this book is off by at least 5 years. Maybe things are different in the UK. To check myself I showed this book to my son and daughter - the parents of my grandchildren. They are both pretty liberal and were both appalled. They said they would never read this to their kids. ...more

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Nov 14, 2024 Loralee rated it liked it

While these stories have a unique twist, they seem reminiscent of old fashioned fairy tales. The stories in this volume include The Horsewhip, the Donkey and the Club, Sebastian the Swindler, Patrick and the Seven Fairies, Frederick the Fox, The Woodwose Next Door, Albert the Adventurous, and several others. The stories are creative and well thought out. Woodwoses are a cleverly made and scary group who are seen repeatedly through these stories. But there are a few typos, and misused words, like ...more

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