Charles Perrault- First published in 1697.
Reading Level: 5+ Number of Pages: 2 Genre: Classic Fairy-tale
Summary: There was once a mother and father who had many children, the youngest of which was little Tom, who was much smaller than the rest. The large family began to be difficult for the mother and father to financially care for, so one day after much arguing and discussion, they determined that they would either starve together in their home or they would have to lose their children in the forest. So the father, who was a woodcutter, took his children into the forest under the guise of having them help him cut wood for their family. Little Tom understood his family's plight, and he undertook to create a way to help him find his way back again, so he took a piece of bread and dropped crumbs as he walked into the forest, hoping to follow the crumbs on his way back. How distraught he was when he found the birds had eaten all the crumbs!
He and his brothers set off into the forest, pursuing a light through the trees they suspected was their home in the distance. When they came close, they discovered it was a cottage where an ogre lived. They knocked and the woman who answered the door scolded them for their folly in coming there. "Do you not know that my husband is an ogre?" she said. "If you lodge here he will surely eat you all up!" "It would be better to risk that in your house than to risk being eaten by wolves out here," said little Tom. And so the woman let them lodge for the night, and they hid under the ogre's bed.
When the ogre came home, he immediately smelled the boys, and searched the house 'til he found them. He would have eaten them all on the spot, had not his wife suggested that they preserve them for another day, while in the meantime they could fatten them up. The ogre agreed, and made a place for the boys to sleep near the bedroom of his daughters.
Now the daughters of the ogre were ogres themselves, but were not fully grown enough to go out hunting men, as their razor teeth had not fully developed. There were seven daughters, and each wore a little golden crown to bed. Thinking quickly, little Tom snuck into the bedroom of the daughters, and stole all their golden crowns. These he placed on the heads of his sleeping brothers, and put his brothers' nightcaps on the ogre's daughters' heads. Late that night, the ogre, who had been drinking plenty of wine, determined to go in and cut the throats of the boys he had found. He crept in and felt around, and noticing the crowns went in the other room and cut the throats of the sleepers there. Little Tom did not sleep at all, but lay quietly and tensely awake, waiting for the ogre to go to bed. He woke his brothers, telling them to make haste so they could leave before it was found out what had been done that night. Just as they were leaving they heard a shriek coming from the house, for it had been discovered that their daughters' throats had been cut. The ogre, realizing what had been done, put on his magic traveling boots and ran throughout the country, seeking the boys and hoping to exact his revenge on them. Little Tom happened upon the ogre after he had been running all over the country for weeks, and had passed out under a tree for the fatigue of running. Here Tom stole the ogre's boots, which were magical and shrank to fit to his feet. He discovered that they also had the magical property of allowing the wearer to reach destinations with great swiftness. Now that the ogre could not pursue them, Tom went and worked for the king, sending messages to neighboring cities, and made quite a fortune of it too. He returned home with the money he had made, and their family dwelt in happiness.
My Impressions: First of all, this version is very much unlike any other I have read of this story. It almost has a "Hansel and Gretel" appeal at the first, but segways into an almost morbid account of the ogre killing his daughters by accident. The appeal in this story is of the ingenuity of little Tom, who, despite his size, is able to outwit a terrible ogre.
Parent's Guide:The ogre accidentally kills his daughters. There is a constant fear in the book of being eaten or destroyed in some way, and the beginning speaks a lot of financial instability. I think the story plays on the common fear of not being able to care for (or the fear of not being cared for).
Recommendations:Stories like this one are very interesting to read in their original form, and I would recommend that parents familiarize their children with various versions of the same tale.
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