_The tale of the witch_. The witch is too strange and too fearful for the child who has not learned to distinguish the true from the imaginative. This would move _Hansel and Grethel_ into the second-grade work and _Sleeping Beauty_ preferably into the work of the first grade. The child soon gains sufficient experience so that later the story impresses, not the strangeness.
_The tale of the dragon_. This would eliminate _Siegfried and the Dragon_. A dragon is too fearful a beast and produces terror in the heart of the child. Tales of heroic adventure with the sword are not suited to his strength. He has not yet entered the realm of bold adventure where Perseus and Theseus and Hercules display their powers. The fact that hero-tales abound in delightful literature is not adequate reason for crowding the _Rhinegold Legends, Wagner Stories_, and _Tales of King Arthur_, into the kindergarten. Their beauty and charm do not make it less criminal to present to little children such a variety of images as knighthood carries with it. These tales are not sufficiently simple for the little child, and must produce a mental confusion and the crudest of returns.
_Giant tales_. This would omit _Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack the Giant-Killer_, and _Tom Hickathrift_, moving them up into the primary field. A little girl, when eating tongue, confidingly asked, "Whose tongue?" and when told, "A cow's," immediately questioned with tenderness, "Don't he feel it?" Thereafter she insisted that she didn't like tongue. To a child of such sensibilities the cutting off of heads is savage and gruesome and should not be given a chance to impress so prominently. Life cannot be without its strife and struggle, but the little child need not meet everything in life at once. This does not mean that absolutely no giant tale would be used at this time. The tale of _Mr. Miacca_, in which "little Tommy couldn't always be good and one day went round the corner," is a giant tale which could be used with young children because it is full of delightful humor. Because of the simplicity of Tommy's language and his sweet childishness it appeals to the child's desire to identify himself with the character. Tommy is so clever and inventive and his lively surprises so brimful of fun that the final effect is entirely pleasing.