The Classics

I called Nonsuch Books in Saco today to see if they had a copy of Where the Wild Things Are. I was really impressed, usually when I go to that store I have trouble finding books there. Usually I get the line..."It's not in stock but we can order it for you." If that was the case I could easily go amazon myself and order it (maybe even get it for a penny used).

What impressed me though was when I walked back to the kids section of the book store was the appearance. The first thing was the fact that alot of the shelving was at child level, a younger shopper would be able to reach it. Other things that impressed me were, there was an associate there to answer questions if needed. There were also tables and chairs so that if they wanted to sit and look at the book before they purchased it. It was a pleasant surprise to number one find the book (I looked for a Dr. Seuss book last year and they didn't carry it) and number two walk into an area that encouraged reading.

The other part of this post that I wanted to talk about was the "classics". I purchased re-release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It is one of my favorite movies. I even remember being Snow White in my nursery school play. I started watching it a few nights ago, and again it got me thinking. I never actually realized how "violent" older fairy tales can be. Let's look at Snow White, in the Disney version the queen wants to kill her, first by the huntsman's hand then as the old lady with the apple. Actually in another version of Snow White that I have read/seen the queen tries to suffocate Snow White by way of a "magical" ribbon that she uses as a belt.

This leaves me with a question...as an educator what do I do? I am one of those people that is a stickler for the original. But what or how much do you show/expose to the children. I would be the one to show the orginal text, there is always a richness about it that I would not want to hold back on the children. I also know that there would be several "hoops" to jump through in some cases. To me it would be worth it, I would want my children to be able to see the orginal story. (In Snow White the dwarfs are actually named after the days of the week not the disney names) Do you think it would be worth it?