We really have not had the best weather in the North West over the last few weeks so we’ve been making our way through a few of the rainy day activities from our staycation plans. One of these was to visit a library, something I used to do at least once a week when it was just me and Lucas. As I got further through my pregnancy with the twins, a walk to the bottom of the road was a struggle, nevermind 30 minutes to the library, so we gradually stopped going and never quite got in the swing of it again. It’s such a shame because I feel like it’s really important to support your local library and I actually do like to use it for me and for Lucas. It’s nice to get some different books without having to wonder where you will possibly squash them onto already overflowing bookcases. I liked to pick up some crocheting and cookery books so I could try before I buy. I’m hoping we’ll start to become regular visitors again as Arthur and Brandon get older but this summer I took advantage of having a car and having my husband free to look after the twins. Lucas and I went for lunch at my mum’s house and visited the little library in her village – which is the one I went to as a child. I remember going there in the holidays for their children’s storytimes with my brother. We’d always go and choose books from there; this was when you had little library cards that slotted into the front of the books and you had to look up the book you wanted in the card catalogue! As I got older I went on my own to work my way through the Sweet Valley High and Point Horror collection then as a teenager me and my friends used to go under the pretext of doing work when it was actually to look at boys on the walk there…terrible!
So anyway I spent a lovely morning with my Mum and Lucas in this little library, still as lovely as I remember it to be and we sat in tiny chairs in the children’s section while the rain pattered on the windows. Lucas made his way through quite a few books and I selected some for us to bring home. I am desperately looking for a good fairy tale collection for him so I picked up a few in the hopes of finding what I’m looking for: a fairy tale book with the endings I remember as a child! It’s not necessarily for him to read now but I wanted on on our bookshelf for when he’s ready. It really seems difficult to find a collection of traditional stories without the endings being changed to what is deemed ‘appropriate’ plots. We read through Three Billy Goats Gruff as we sat in the library (one of my favourites) and right at the end the last Billy Goat Gruff trip traps over the bridge and decides he can’t be bothered to fight the troll at the moment so carries on, the troll then decides to leave his home under the bridge before the goat returns for winter. As I was reading it I thought, “that’s not how I remember it ending” and as I read through the other books many were the same. I actually had to ask my husband if that was the ending he remembered.
I suppose I don’t know if the endings would frighten Lucas or not, maybe they would, but isn’t that up to me to decide if he’s ready to read them? I don’t remember ever being particularly traumatised by them as a child, in fact my collection of Grimm stories was one of my favourite books. Are we not giving our children enough credit for being able to tell the difference; can they not just take the joy in an imaginative story or do we really need to worry that these tales are ‘dangerous’ for their little minds?
I guess the whole point of fairy tales is that they change and evolve. So many are written from folk stories, tales told from person to person, and will obviously have been adapted over the years. Probably many of these stories had been tamed down from the originals when I read them. Still I can’t help but feel a little robbed when I get to the end of Red Riding Hood and Grandmother was hiding the the cupboard!
I’d like to think that I know my children well enough to know how they would react to a book and when they are ready to read it but maybe it would upset them and I would instantly regret it. Incidentally the ‘safe’ Three Billy Goats Gruff book has become one of Lucas’ favourites and we have to read it several times a day. What do you think, is there anything you don’t like your children to read or are we being too protective?
8 Comments
Aww that sounds lovely. I’ve noticed quite a few stories have been doctored. I think it’s such a shame. Who has the right to change someone else’s work. I love libraries 🙂
August 19, 2014 at 8:50 pmAh, lovely that you got the chance to go again. I’m not keen on the endings being changed. Our generation, and many more before it coped with the original ending, so I’m sure our kids can!
August 20, 2014 at 10:51 amIt really winds me up when they change the story endings. Children over the years have listened to and read them unaffected, and I think until they get a little older and know what being scared is (if they’re not already a sensitive child), then they generally just take it as what it is, a story.
#sharewithme
August 21, 2014 at 10:20 amWhat an idyllic day! I’m so excited to take Austin to the library when he’s old enough, just like I used to go as a child 🙂 You’re right though as an adult I think we understand the books more, but again, I wasn’t traumatised as a child so I will go ahead and read him the classics and see what he makes of them! #sharewithme xx
August 22, 2014 at 3:26 amWhaaat?? I’ve never read the version where Grandma is hiding in the cupboard, thats such a con isn’t it. We all turned out ok with the mild violence 😀 I used to love Sweet Valley high too!
August 22, 2014 at 8:52 amSo great you got to take him to library again. I totally remember those library cards that you wrote your name and the date on and slipped inside the book and also card catalogues! Can’t believe how much time changes
August 22, 2014 at 7:52 pmWe were just talking about how little kids stories are all quite morbid. I have noticed a lot of the stories are changing and being altered. But what a great day and so many memories made too. Sounds lovely. Thank you so much for linking up to Share With Me #sharewithme
August 23, 2014 at 3:53 amMost fairy stories have been dumbed down over the years, or disney-fixed, but we’re actually originally much darker, I don’t think it’s just our generation that’s done this, more of a successive thing. I guess these stories originally started as a way to stop children doing things they shouldn’t – scare children from going into the woods with tales of the big, bad wolf and so on.
August 27, 2014 at 7:59 pm