day in a life

I read a lot to my son and he also listens a lot to stories on a cd. His favourite at the moment is Peter and the wolf. A good way to teach kids a little bit about classical instruments and the affect they can have in stories and movies. but I can't say it's a nice story! the wolf eats the duck and in the end Peter catches the wolf but he can't save the duck but if you listen,like they say in the end, you can still hear the duck, it's a life in the wolfs stomach. Now that ain't nice. You can say the same thing about most H.C. Andersen's stories, they are filled with lies, deceit and even murder. Read Big Claus and small Claus. My favourite story as a kid happened on Christmas eve here in iceland. About a priest that would rather dance than do mass. His mom worries about him but he won't listen. A troll like creature starts to lurk around the church and the mother can hear it, but her son won't listen so she rides to another church to get some help and when they come back the earth has swallowed the church in whole and all the people in it. the mother is left alone and it is promised that once the church has been built again there will never be a dance there! What a frightening christmas story! Children books seem to aim to scare, and of course give some message.

Was just wondering about this, there are of course many more subjects to think about when it comes to children's lit but I was just thinking about this.