One of my favourite activities is reading stories to my toddler. For the most part, his attention span doesn't last through several pages of story, but I still enjoy reading them. However, I've learned that we need to find the original versions of stories!
There is an unfortunate trend to "re-tell" classic stories, in the dullest and most uninspiring way possible. I love to read Kipling aloud; the words flow from the tongue and inspire the imagination with thoughts of far-away places and magic. T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats inspires my oratory. But a re-telling of Charles Perrault's Puss in Boots kills any enthusiasm for the resourceful feline.
I guess with freedom of speech and all that we can't stop people from messing up good stories, but but comparing words that were meant to be read aloud to a mere accounting of events, well, there is no comparison.
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