The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales

The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales, by the Brothers Grimm, is a big collection of the original German folk tales for 8 year olds, and they're a LOT wilder than the picture-book versions.

What happens

Did you know the princess never kisses the frog? In The Frog-King, the very first story, she gets so fed up with him wanting to sleep in her bed that she throws him at the wall. That's what breaks the spell.

That sets the tone nicely. These stories are strange, funny, sometimes cruel and often very sudden.

In Cat and Mouse in Partnership, a cat sets up home with a mouse. She sneaks off to eat their winter store of fat, one lie at a time. When the mouse works it out, the cat simply eats her too. And that's the end.

The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids goes further than you might remember. The mother goat cuts open the sleeping wolf, the kids hop out unharmed and they fill his tummy with stones.

Then there's the boy who can't understand what being scared means. He spends three nights in a haunted castle playing skittles with skulls and still doesn't shiver. (How he finally learns is gloriously silly.)

You'll find the famous ones in here too, such as Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Rapunzel and Snow White.

This is an older translation, so the language is old-fashioned. There are words like whithersoever, some very long sentences and the odd Verily. Some children love that. Others will find it much easier with a grown-up reading aloud, one story a night.

Please be aware these are not softened. In the opening stories alone, animals get eaten, a queen is tied to a stake to be burned, a boy sits all night under a gallows with seven hanged men, and a wolf drowns. Some stories are also openly religious. If your child is sensitive to dark or scary things, try one together first and see how it lands.

For a reader who already knows the Disney versions and wants the real, old stories, it's a treasure chest to dip into.

What to read next

If they end up loving the old tales, Hilary McKay's Fairy Tales is in the library too. She tells them again from a new angle, and her Rapunzel starts with two children saving up every coin they have to buy a caged yellowhammer.