When Hansel and Gretel try to eat the witch's gingerbread house in the
woods, are they indulging their "uncontrolled cravings" and "destructive
desires" or are they simply responding normally to the hunger pangs they
feel after being abandoned by their parents? Challenging Bruno
Bettelheim and other critics who read fairy tales as enactments of
children's untamed urges, Maria Tatar argues that it is time to stop
casting the children as villians. In this provocative book she explores
how adults mistreat children, focusing on adults not only as hostile
characters in fairy tales themselves but also as real people who use
frightening stories to discipline young listeners.