“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want your children to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”I was once talking to a young girl about favorite things. “My favorite animal for years was the unicorn,” I told her. She looked at me very seriously. “Unicorns aren’t real.”
--Albert Einstein
I can’t remember how I responded. I knew unicorns weren’t real, but I spent a generous portion of fourth and fifth grade drawing them and dreaming about them anyway.
I’m positive my parents didn’t read me fairy tales because they wanted me to believe in fairies. Or unicorns. Or because they thought the stories would give me a good grounding in math, or theology, or science. They read me those books because the stories were good, and because they contained deep truths about life—what it means to be foolish or clever or brave, how important it is to follow good advice and help others in need, and how there is more to life than what you can see and hear and taste.
So I’m curious—what are some of your favorite fairy tales, either as a child or now? I grew up on a lot of Scandinavian folk and fairy tales because of the wonderful books my grandfather, a history professor who specialized in Norwegian-American immigrants, gave as Christmas and birthday gifts. The kids and I have been reading through my old copy of Great Swedish Fairytales
, illustrated by John Bauer, recently. I had forgotten just how beautifully-written it is, and I love it now more than ever. Two of my more recent favorites are The Empty Pot
, by Demi, and The Wide-Awake Princess
, by Katherine Paterson.How about you?
