^{Originally published on BabyCenter.com August 9, 2013}

“More book?” is the boy’s rallying cry at bedtime. He knows it’s hard for us to say “no” to him wanting to read.

Sometimes, we read until he falls asleep. Sometimes we leave him with a book in his crib and let him look at the pictures until he finally shuts his eyes. And sometimes he wakes up screaming at 3:30 in the morning and only a story will calm him down.

It’s on those nights when the whole family is sleep deprived and I don’t want to risk turning on a light that I turn to the stories I know by heart – the simple fairy tales that almost all of us hear at one point or another in our childhoods.

And it’s usually in the middle of reciting these tried and true fairy tales that I realize how badly they need editing.

Continue reading “Editing Fairy Tales for Your Kids” →