Fairytales in psychological order...

 There are whole theories on the psychology of fairytales; it is all extraordinarily interesting...  honestly.

Lately  J seems to be reading fairytales in psychological order!

I saw this quote on a leaflet from the library this week:

“If you want your children to be intelligent read them fairytales, if you want your children to be more intelligent read them more fairytales” (Albert Einstein)

If this is true then it’s possibly because life itself is a story.  Your story, their story. It’s all been said before but, children learn how to live life  by playing, play acting, role playing, imagining themselves to be someone or something else, reading about someone  else and having empathy with that character.  This is why books, (and therefore fairytales) are the most important thing  in a child’s life.  Well I think so anyway.  Me and Einstein; great minds think alike. Ha.

J’s first fairytale fascination was Goldilocks and the 3 bears.  This makes sense; young girl’s first venture out alone, her curiosity gets the better of her, then its ‘best run home it’s safer there’.  It’s a tale with no real resolution, things are tried out, and things get broken, nothing else is said.  For a toddler this tale is just like dipping your toe in the water of the world but nothing else. 

There are a few family stories about J. applying the Goldilocks story to life...  the best one was when we took J. to choose her first potty.  It was in Mothercare.  I lifted down a selection of 3 potties and asked her to choose one.  With a grin on her face she sat on the first potty and said no, sat on the second potty and said no, then sat on the third (at this point I realised what she was doing) and said ‘just right’.  Hilarious .

She is currently moving cautiously towards  Little Red Riding Hood.  Little Red is similar to Goldilocks, but she has a bit more of an adventure doesn’t she?  We love these versions:  

"One day you will be old enough to read fairytales again" (C S Lewis)

The Dolls' House Fairy by Jane Ray

I recently bought 3 Jane Ray picture books for J.  I have been fascinated by Jane Ray’s artwork for years.  When I worked in bookselling, I purchased all of the Berlie Doherty Fairy Tales, having been drawn in by the wonderful pictures that decorated the pages and brought the words to life.  I only wished there were more drawings...  How could I resist then The Doll’s House Fairy, Can you Catch a Mermaid? And The Apple Pip Princess. 

Our favourite of these titles and the best one for J’s age group is The Doll’s House Fairy. 

The story goes like this... Every Saturday morning Rosy and her Dad work on decorating her doll’s house together but when he suddenly becomes ill Rosy is surprised to find a little fairy in the doll’s house.  A messy, cheeky, quite unconventional little fairy...

This book is exquisite both in the simplicity of its story and the detailed, satisfying interpretation of the story in the illustrations.  Each page is full of colour, childhood wonder, nostalgia and tiny details which little girls just love to spot and point out to you... A miniature toy deer, and another one and another one, the cat sneaking a taste of the Saturday morning hot chocolate, the fairy peeking out from the doll’s house bedclothes...  Scenes are built as the reader either looks into the doll’s house or cleverly into the real house where the little girl, Rosy, lives with her family.

I love real doll’s houses for their tininess and this book captures the love of ‘tiny’ perfectly, right to the very last page and right to the very sweet happy ending. 

This book is such a pleasure to read to J, a pleasure to look at and a pleasure to hold in my hands... thank you Jane Ray.

White as Snow

I have a tendancy to move from obsession to obsession when it comes to fairytales... Most recently it was The Princess & the Pea and for the longest time Beauty & the Beast was my fixation. Over the past weeks it has been Snow White. I find that these obsessions overtake me quite naturally. I will be sitting there and suddenly think "I must read Snow White". I think its because in some ingrained way these tales are part of my psyche and whenever I need a little help to work things out, the right tale for the job pops into my head.
If you analyse it, Snow White is about change and the steps we go through to reach maturity. I may be married with a house and kids, but I still need to enter that glass box now and again for some thinking time. We all do. 

I really love the above edition by Josephine Poole which I amazingly found in the charity shop around the corner from my house. Why do people give these things away? It was 35 pence.

I also love this edition by Berlie Doherty which I bought ages ago in 2004:

Just look how beautiful Snow White is in the illustration.

On peas and princesses...

I seem to move from obsession to obsession, especially when it comes to reading and fairytales... Whatever the tale, I read every version I can find, I buy the editions I can afford, I read the literary crit on the tale and then come up with my own interpretations too...
This month I have been obsessing over 'The Princess & the Pea'. Its certainly a very pretty tale. I say this because there is so much art work out there, like that above by E. Dulac, which has been inspired by it.

It is a very visual tale. It conjurs up strong images of soft versus hard, little versus big, rich versus poor, lies versus truth and not forgetting a very Royal Pea indeed.
I just love the idea of the tower of mattresses. I wish I could sleep on a bed like that. I also love the idea of the pea itself. Where does this come fom I wonder? I can find so little that attempts to explain any underlying meanings to this tale. Its joy comes from the fact that it is so simple and so short. Perhaps this is why there is so little written about it in response?

 

I have just finished reading Lauren Child's gorgeous photo art version of the tale. Its such a beautiful book. Oh and also I re-read The Pea and the Princess by Mini Grey, told from the perspective of the pea. ha! I remember reading this for the first time many moons ago when I worked in children's publishing. It made me laugh. It still does.