One-Minute Favorite Fairy Tales - Hardcover

PreSchool-Grade 2 The point of this collection of 21 abbreviated tales, says Lewis, is to be "truly involved with your youngster. . .when reading is not what you wish to be doing." But why bother at all with these truncated, synopsized, blunted and bony tales? Four-paragraph retellings eliminate most repetitions, the power of the patterned language and the evident and inevitable conclusions which have made stories such as these the backbone of children's literature. Red Riding Hood's wolf eats no one, Baba Yaga flits through a story and the storyteller remarks at the close of "The Sky Is Falling," "Do I have to tell you what happened?" Well, yes. That, at least, is the job of the storytellerto enchant listeners with the whole story. Rather than stuff these tales into young children, why not wait until they're a little older and can hear the real stories, warts, witches, retributions, rewards and all. That is, if anyone has the time to read beyond a minute. Susan Hepler, formerly at Ohio State University, Columbus
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