What are some gruesome/original fairy tales for lower reading abilities?

Question

Hi there, I am an intermediate (middle school) teacher. In literacy we are studying the origins of fairy tales, teaching students the original, more gruesome, fairy tales, and looking at the original intentions of the tales (i.e. warnings, rather than a nice children's story). I am struggling however to find appropriate material for my lower readers, who are reading at an 8 to 10 year old level. I find the stories available at this level too sanitised and babyish, and not at all suitable for kids this age. Does anyone have any ideas?

Answer 1

Have you tried the original versions of the tales, rather than the sanitized Disney ones?  Good grief, some of them scared the jeebers out of my son when he was 9...he kept looking at me, going, "they wrote these for kids?  were they nuts?"  :)

Any library should have the _____ Fairy Book (Blue, Purple, Green, etc.) in stock...these are original fairy tales from all over the world, unabridged and unsanitized.  You will probably have to start out with the full story being a read-aloud, as they were written 1-300 years ago, but you can assign paragraphs and sections for reading comprehension and lit analysis work.

Answer 2

grimms is too difficult? How about Aesop's Fables? Not too gruesome but some suckers get tricked into doom

Answer 3

Alice in Wonderland may definitely be a very hard read but it could be fun. It can be both lighthearted and very dark at the same time.