What We're Reading - and the Importance of Fairy Tales

This week, we began a new chapter book, The Witches, by Roald Dahl. I read a lot of Dahl and have some favorites - and this is in my top three.

Dahl was said to be a writer of modern fairy tales. Fairy tales are by their very nature scary, and The Witches is certainly no exception. Whenever I read this book to small children, my audience is rapt - alternating between laughter and suspenseful gasps. It is often hard to stop reading to go to other things, as we always want "just one more chapter!"

Sometimes caregivers voice concern about violence or scariness in children's books - are these acceptable to read to sensitive and impressionable children? Experts overwhelmingly say "yes." Small ones can work through personal anxieties in a safe way. The protagonist always survives. Good triumphs over evil. Child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim believed that stories like these are important to children's development because the main characters - often children themselves - demonstrate pluck and courage, and triumph over adversity in a world of giants, cruel adults, and - yes - even witches.