Perrault's Fairy Tales

Perrault's Complete Fairy Tales

By Charles Perrault

Published by Dodd, Mead, & Company (1961)

Reading Level: Ages 9-12 years

Pages: 184

Genre: Fairy Tales

Summary: "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" is about a princess that is cursed to prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die, but another fairy promises that she will only sleep. So the princess prick's her finger when she is about sixteen. She falls asleep and the fairy puts the whole castle to sleep. Hundred years later a prince learns about the princess and finds her and she wakes up. They get married, but the prince doesn't tell his family for a while because he didn't want his mom to eat his children. he finally brings his family home to his kingdom when he becomes king, but has to leave for war. The queen tries to eat the kids and princess, but they are saved by a steward that hides them away. The queen finds out and is going to have them killed but the king comes back just in time so the queen kills herself.

"The Fairies" is about a woman with two daughters. One is nice and pretty and the other is mean and ugly. The mother likes the mean one because they are alike. They send the pretty one out to get water and she gives some to an old woman who is actually a fairy. After that, whenever the girl spoke jewels came out of her mouth. The wicked daughter tries it but is mean a fine lady (that is the same fairy) and then whenever she spoke nasty creatures came out of her mouth. The pretty girl marries a prince and the wicked girl is cast away and dies.

"Little Red Riding Hood" is about Little Red going to see her grandmother. She talks to a wolf and tells him where she is going. The wolf races ahead and eats the grandma, then when Little Red get there he eats her too. The moral of the story is don't talk to wolves.

"Princess Rosette" is about a princess with two brothers that love he dearly. Princess Rosette decides she wants to marry the king of peacocks, so her brothers go find him. They send for her and tell the king that their sister is beautiful and the king falls in love with the picture. On the journey there, a maid puts Rosette out on the ocean while she is asleep and then the maid send her ugly daughter in her place. The king is furious when he sees the fake princess, thinking the princes had lied about their sister's beauty and send them to the deepest dungeons. Rosette floats to shore and is saved by a nice old man, who tells the king what happened and everyone is united and happy.

My Reaction: They were good. Not as violent as Grimm, the stories were still good and liked the different version of the story.

Potential Problems: Little Red dies, the ogre queen is kind of scary

Recommendations: Little girls would enjoy these stories because they are mostly happy and not as gruesome as some of the older ones.