Blue Beard

Blue Beard (From The World's Best Fairy Tales)
(Also read Puss in Boots, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella)
Charles Perrault
The Readers Digest Assoc., 1967
Pages: 7
Reading Level: 9-12
Genre: Fairy Tale

Blue Beard is a man with a blue beard. Because of this odd beard, he was considered very ugly. He wanted a girl to be his wife, but she said no, so Blue Beard invited her and her mother and friends to his castle where they played and had fun. After this, the girl agreed to marry him. She enjoyed herself with her new finery. One day Blue Beard had to leave, and he gave his wife all of his keys. He told her she could use all of them but one. Then he left. When he left, his wife became so curious that she went and opened the cupboard that the forbidden key opened. Inside were the corpses of Blue Beards previous wives. She was so scared. When Blue Beard found out, he was going to kill her, but her brothers came just in time and killed Blue Beard. The woman became very rich with Blue Beards money, and found a nice husband.

I would recommend this book to older children and adults.

This book condones disobedience. Children could think that if they do something they were told not to do, that they won't have consequences.

My reaction: This fairy tale was better than some of the others I have read. I liked it.

My rating: ***