Classic Fairytales

We are leery of them. My son at 4 is really impressionable, and I was horrified at the brutality of some of the tales in kids' books. We were really really happy with one particular telling of a classic fairy tale, after being unable to keep watching the Disney version because it scared my kids too much, and that was Jan Brett's version of "Beauty and the Beast", and it was WONDERFUL. I choked up reading it, and instead of the message being that by loving a bad man you can make him good, the message that people shouldn't judge by appearances, but rather, what's in the heart, was what came through. Excellent book, and the illustrations are such as only Jan Brett can do. Nuff said.
I think fairy tales were conceived to entertain and thrill adult audiences, because people gathered in groups, including kids, to hear the tales the bards told around the fire...later on they were meant to scare kids out of dangerous behavior or disobedience. Definitely weren't intended to comfort a kid to sleep!