SurLaLune frequently receives inquiries about children and fairy tales. Here is a summary of some of the most frequently recommended sources for researching the topic as well as links to archived discussions on the SurLaLune Discussion Board.

Books

I also have an Amazon Listmania list of most of the books mentioned on this page at Children and Fairy Tales.

Bettelheim, Bruno.  The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales.  New York: Vintage Books, 1975.

Cashdan, Sheldon. The Witch Must Die. New York: Basic, 1999.

Douglas, Susan J. Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media. New York: Crown, 1994.

Lurie, Alison. Don't Tell the Grown-ups: The Subversive Power of Children's Literature. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1990.

Rusch-Feja, Diann D. The Portrayal of the Maturation Process of Girl Figures in Selected Tales of the Brothers Grimm. New York: Peter Lang, 1995.

Shannon, George. Folk Literature and Children: An Annotated Bibliography of Secondary Materials. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1982.

Tatar, Maria M. The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales. Princeton: Princeton University, 1987.

Tatar, Maria M. Off With Their Heads! Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood. Princeton: Princeton University, 1992.

Yolen, Jane. Touch Magic. Little Rock: August House, 2000.

Zipes, Jack. Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion: The Classical Genre for Children and the Process of Civilization. New York: Routledge, 1985.

Zipes, Jack. Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales, Children and the Cultural Industry. New York: Routledge, 1997.

Zipes, Jack. Sticks and Stones: The Troublesome Success of Children's Literature from Slovenly Peter to Harry Potter. New York: Routledge, 2000.

Zipes, Jack, ed. When Dreams Came True. London: Routledge, 1998.

Articles

Haase, Donald. "Psychology and Fairy Tales." The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales. Jack Zipes, editor. Oxford: Oxford University, 2000.

Haase, Donald. "Feminist Fairy-Tale Scholarship: A Critical Survey and Bibliography" Marvels & Tales. vol. 14, no. 1 [2000]: 15-63.

Haase, Donald. "Response and Responsibility in Reading Grimms' Fairy Tales." The Reception of Grimms' Fairy Tales: Responses, Reactions, Revisions. Donald Haase, editor. Detroit: Wayne State Univ. Press, 1993. pp. 230-49.

Discussion Board Archives

December 2000: Teaching Fairy Tales

February 2001: Censorship of fairy tales

February 2001: Stepmothers???

December 2001: Bettleheim "Revelations"

December 2001: False sense of reality

April 2002: Are fairytales childlike?

April 2002: Questions and Advice

April 2002: Should Children Read Fairy Tale?

October 2002: Fairy tales - unrealistic??

February 2003: Effects of fairy tales

February 2003: Teaching stories for young men

February 2004: The Uses of Enchantment-Meaning in Fairy Tales by Bettelheim

March 2004: Negative/Postivie Effects of Fairytales

March 2004: Should children be told fairy tales?

July 2004: Fairy tales and children's view on good and evil

July 2004: Help - English project on fairy tales... no clue!

August 2004: Feminine Beauty in Fairy Tales

September 2004: Fantasy is good for kids (& Harry Potter discussion)

April 2005: Fairy Tales = Adult Entertainment?

April 2005: Children's perception of 'unfair' fairy tale endings

April 2005: Impact of fairy tales on Children and Women