11 Classic Fairy Tales That Won’t Give Kids Nightmares

by Dena McMurdie

One day, my children were discussing the movie Frozen and wondering how Disney came up with a story like that. I mentioned that the original fairy tale is called The Snow Queen and is different from the movie. My kids were stunned. They had no idea that the feel-good movie they loved was based on a story that was hundreds of years old. Suddenly, they were full of questions. What happened in the “real” version of the story? Which other movies and books are based on classic fairy tales, and how are they different?

The next day, my daughter went hunting for classic fairy tales at her elementary school library. She came home with a stack of picture books for us to read together. We had a wonderful time reading the books and learning the original versions of the stories we love.

Of course, some of the original fairy tales are dark, violent, and are more likely to give a child nightmares than anything else. Thankfully, there are plenty of picture books that retell the classics without all the scary bits that could potentially scar your children for life. Here are some books that stay true to the original story — minus the nightmares.