Little Snow White

Little Snow White
The Brothers Grimm
Source/Date: National Geographic 1999
Page #: 2
Reading Level: 4th Grade
Genre: Fairy Tale
Summary:

This fairy tale begins with a Queen who wishes for a daughter who was white as snow, black as ebony, and red as blood. She gets her wish and a beautiful baby girl is born. They named her Snow White. However, the Queen dies soon after she is born leaving the girl to be raised by her father and her haughty step-mother. She would sit in front of her mirror and ask it who was the fairest in the land. It would always reassure her that it was she who was the most beautiful. However, Snow White grows and becomes more and more beautiful until one day the proud Queen asks the mirror who is the fairest in the land, and she gets the answer that it is in fact Snow White. The Queen is angry and she hires a hunter to kill Little Snow White and bring her heart to her. When the hunter goes to kill Snow White, she pleads with him not to, so he spares her. He then takes the heart of a bear to the Queen and she eats it, thinking she has eaten the heart of Snow White. Meanwhile, Snow White wanders in the forest until she finds the cottage of 7 dwarfs. They come home to find her sleeping in their beds. They let her stay with them if she agrees to cook and clean for them. Meanwhile, the Queen again asks her mirror who is the fairest in the land. The mirror tells her that it is Snow White and tells her where she is. The evil Queen is angry and goes to the cottage three times while the dwarfs are gone to try to kill Snow White. On the final try, she gets Snow White to eat a poison apple and she falls down dead. The dwarfs come home to find her dead and they can't bury her. So they put her in a coffin of glass. A prince comes along and takes Snow White with him because she is so beautiful. He stumbled while carrying her, and the piece of apple came out of Snow White's throat. She woke up and married the prince. Her evil step-mother was then forced to put on hot shoes and dance until she died.

Who Would Benefit from Reading This?

I think anyone who enjoys fairy tales would benefit from reading this. This is one tale that I think children will enjoy. Those who like happily ever after endings would appreciate this story because in the end, everything works out okay. Snow White gets her prince, and the evil Queen gets her justice.

What conflicts or problems could this story potentially cause?

I don't see any problems with this particular fairy tale. Compared to some of the other Grimm fairy tales, this one is fairly mild. The one thing that might be disturbing for young children is the fact that the evil Queen was made to dance in hot shoes until she died.

My Reaction:

I enjoyed this fairy tale very much. I liked comparing it to the Disney version that I grew up with. I found with this one there weren't many differences. The biggest one was the fact that the Queen came to the cottage three times disguised to try to kill Snow White. I was a bit frustrated with that part of the story though. I wanted Snow White be smarter. It was frustrating that she fell for the Queen's tricks three times. I wanted her to learn her lesson after the first time.