Trickster fairy tales

In The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats the trickster is the wolf. He eats chalk to soften his voice and gets a miller to whiten his paw, and the kids open the door. Their mother then tricks him back with a belly full of stones.

Stone Soup turns trickery into something warmer. A tramp talks a stingy woman into adding flour, beef, potatoes, barley and milk to a pot with a stone in it, and she ends up thanking him for the recipe and giving him a silver coin.

The Fox and the Crow takes a minute. The fox praises the crow’s feathers and wonders aloud about her voice, and when she caws, down falls the cheese. Ask your child why the crow believed him, and whether flattery has ever worked on them.

The Brave Little Tailor beats a giant by squeezing soft cheese instead of a stone and throwing a bird instead of a rock. Later he drops stones on two sleeping giants until they fight each other. It takes twelve minutes, and children laugh at each trick.