By Alidė Kohlhaas

We tend to think of the folk and fairytales collected by the Brothers Grimm during the mid-1800s as stories to be read to or read by children. Yet, this book is, to me, really meant more for adults and young adults. Still, with the right attention, these stories are also for children. They see worse on TV and on their computers through the games they are allowed to play there.

Illustrated with fine drawings and color plates by Tracy Arah Dockray, the stories should be familiar to older readers and so will, no doubt, raise some moments of nostalgia. The Robber Bridegroom, the Death of the Little Hen and Aschenputtel, the German name for Cinderella, are certainly part of our childhood. But, this Cinderella is a much darker tale than the one with which we have become familiar. It shows that folk tales were anything but benign in the original versions. They were the forerunners of today's mystery tales and ghost stories. Told around the evening fireplace to while away dark winter nights in Nordic countries, when gas lights and, eventually, electricity were not yet part of the lives of people, they were blood curdling, cruel, and often simplistic in the moral values they were meant to instill.