Grimms's Fairy Tales, Vol. 3

The two stories which make up this tape--"Hans In Luck" and "Three Golden Hairs"--have been adapted by award-winning children's author and illustrator Eric Carle. In "Three Golden Hairs", a wicked queen is foiled in her attempt to kill a beautiful princess, when each of her cruel plans results in an unexpected benefit for the young girl. And "Hans In Luck" tells the whimsical story of a young lad who starts home with a bag of gold, and consistently trades down, until he's left with nothing...except his mother, for which he's still convinced that he's "the luckiest young man in the whole world." Introduced by famed Disney child actress Hayley Mills, the tape is especially invaluable in its insistence on getting children to read books. The only drawback we could see was in Ms. Mill's unfamiliarity with the history of children's literature. Contrary to her assertion that books written specifically for children did not appear until only 150 years ago (she is, presumably, referring to the 1823 publication of the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm), James Janeway's A Token For Children was published in 1671, and popular collections of fairy tales were common throughout the 18th century. This observation aside, the tape is recommended.