Fairy tales about family

Hop-o’-My-Thumb begins with hard news: a poor woodcutter leads his seven sons into the forest to lose them. The smallest marks the way home with pebbles, and later swaps nightcaps for gold crowns to save his brothers from the ogre.

The Seven Ravens is about a sister who learns, years later, why her brothers were turned into birds. She walks to the sun, the moon and the stars to find them, and drops her parents’ ring into the last little cup so that they will know her.

For three- and four-year-olds, The Tale of Peter Rabbit is the easy choice. Peter disobeys his mother, loses his jacket and shoes in Mr. McGregor’s garden, and goes to bed with camomile tea while Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-tail get blackberries.

Momotaro, the Peach Boy shows a family that is not made by birth: an old couple who longed for a child open a huge peach, and a little boy steps out. He goes off to fight the devils and comes home to live with them in peace and plenty.