Years ago I bought lovely editions of several of the Rainbow Fairy Books by Andrew Lang. Miss A read from a few, and I read some from The Blue Fairy Book aloud, but for the most part they have just sat on the shelf. This term, in an effort to actually use them, I decided to read at least a couple of tales from each book aloud to Mr. L. Sometimes the bizarre story lines and gruesome scenes turn me off from reading them, but fairy tales can actually be a way of assuaging a child’s fears as they see the triumph of good over evil. G. K. Chesterton argues this point quite vociferously in his essay from Tremendous Trifles, entitled The Red Angel. Referring to those who think fairy tales will frighten children, he says:
All this kind of talk is based on that complete forgetting of what a child is like which has been the firm foundation of so many educational schemes. If you kept bogies and goblins away from children they would make them up for themselves.
(My youngest has filled reams of paper with his monsters and skeletons. 😉 )
And later on:
Fairy tales do not give a child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.
Also read/listened to recently:
- Hubby: listened to Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee on a recent work trip, so Miss A can narrate and discuss it with him – yay!
- Me: a re-read of Hamlet, following along with the Arkangel recording.
- Miss A: just started George Eliot’s Silas Marner.
- Mr. D: Pixar Character Encyclopedia 😉
- Mr. E: the latest Outlaws of Time book by N. D. Wilson, now that big sister has finished it. 🙂
- Mr. L: still enjoying The Hobbit with Dad.
- Little R: Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit
