Look, if your kid thinks Cinderella is all about singing mice and a sparkly blue dress, this book is going to wreck them. This is the un-sanitized, brutal, and deeply weird original text.

It’s a masterpiece of world literature, but the Margaret Hunt translation is definitely 'old school.' It reads more like a Victorian textbook than a modern novel. For a kid who loves dark folklore or wants to be a writer, this is a goldmine. For a kid who just wants a quick bedtime story, it might be a bit of a bore.

Buy it for the shelf because it looks cool and has every story imaginable, but maybe keep the 'all-ages' label at arm's length. It's safe in the sense that it's a book, but it’s 'unsafe' for any child expecting a happy ending every time.