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Title: Snow White and Other Fairy Tales (Dover Children's Thrift Classics) by Wilhelm Grimm, Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm, Thea Kliros ISBN: 0-486-28327-5 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: January, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $1.00

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)

Rating: 5
Summary: Genuine Grimm, cheap & child friendly
Comment: I'm thrilled to have discovered these Dover Children's Thrift Classics. It's wonderful to have a few (11, I think) selected fairy tales for such a low price, illustrated with nice line drawings.

I especially like this one because it's all Grimm. Yes, some Grimm fairy tales are horribly gruesome & even downright offensive. But none of those appear here, and Grimm fairy tales are told in beautiful descriptive language, unlike other versions. In particular, to me Snow White is not Snow White unless the opening lines mention the queen working by the window with her ebony embroidery frame, looking out at the snow & pricking her finger, before wishing for a child "as white as snow, red as blood & black as ebony." Some versions are not nearly as descriptive.

I highly recommend the Grimm volumes from this series as a way of introducing your children to authentic fairy tales. Not only are they richer in language & imagery, & more culturally resonant, they also serve as an answer to the criticism that fairy tales are bad for girls because the heroines are passive & dependent upon others, especially men, for their salvation.

For example, in the Grimm version, when the mirror says Snow White is the fairest, the Queen immediately plots to kill her, rather than sentencing her to kitchen duty. There is no description of her dreaming of a handsome prince while she scrubs dishes. The huntsman spares Snow White because she speaks up & begs him not to, promising to disappear into the forest and never come back. The wild animals refrain from eating her but don't help her find her way to the dwarves' house - she does that by herself. When she gets there, everything is pretty, neat & clean - the dwarves do not need her to keep house for them, though they do ask her to.

To cite a less familiar example from this volume, The Seven Ravens is about a sister's quest to free her 7 brothers from the spell cast upon them by the ill wishes of their father. In this tale, it is the girl who is the rescuer. It's worth mentioning that as the tale opens, the father has 7 sons but not a daughter, and fervently wishes for one. This affirms the value of girls.

So before deciding it's best to keep your daughter away from fairy tales, or lamenting the inevitability of the latest video from you-know-who, read the Grimm versions. These volumes are the most affordable & convenient way to do that.