A while back I was expressing some chagrin at the lesson taught by Jack the Giant Killer and Puss in Boots--that it's okay to steal the property of innocent giants and ogres. And some readers made some suggestions for other stories that might better align with my bleeding heart sensibilities.
And I listened. My DIL Aileen suggested Yertle the Turtle, saying that it had radicalized her at an early age. Well, it's a delight. Dr. Seuss is always fun to read and the story of Yertle , the King of the turtles who commands the other turtles to make a throne of themselves so he can be the monarch of all he surveys had me thinking of the 1% today, whose wealth depends on the exploitation of others. Yertle is undone when Mack, the ordinary turtle at the bottom of the stack, has had enough. And in the end, Yertle is dethroned and all the turtles are free. Now there's a story I can read over and over (three times yesterday) and feel good about.
Another recommendation was The Paper Bag Princess. (I think this was Andree.) Another great little story. A dragon destroys the princess's castle and steals the handsome prince she was meant to marry. The princess's beautiful clothes are all burned up but she finds a paper bag to wear and sets out to rescue the prince. After outwitting the dragon, she saves the prince who turns up his nose at her dirty face, messy hair, and paper bag.
She tells him he's a bum and goes her merry way, happily single in her paper bag.
Now just yesterday, Josie was talking about Perseus and Medusa. Claui tells me that Greek myths are a new obsessions so I'm going to have to look for some children's versions. I wonder if they'll be righteous.