fee fi fo fum

[Vanessa3]

Jack & the Beanstalk - how could anyone forget "fee fi fo fum! I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he alive or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to make my bread" An absolute classic you could never forget.. Right? Wrong! I picked up a copy this week for my son only to find the words have changed. "fee fi fo fum! Watch out everyone, here I come" Have all versions changed, or just this particular book from Cheners? Was the Giant really that offensive that he needed toning down for little new age ears?

[candj]

My eldest was in a school play last year of jack and the beanstalk it went something like "fee fi fo fum, I want my breakfast yum yum yum." I blame it on pc!

[Pickle]

My son's nursery class (Goodrich) must be doing the original, because he's been telling me all afternoon that he's going to grind my bones to make his bread. Charming little chap.

[nunheadmum]

I was just commenting on this the other day, that our CD version was actually the original - I think all the other versions we have, have been doctored in some way or another, even amending the story (why Jack stole the hen) and what happens to the giant.

It does all seem a little like the world gone PC mad or protecting our kids from the horrible nightmares that the original story gave us (not!).

Nothing wrong with eating English little boys!!! (And I don't say that just because I'm Scottish!!)

[Link]

We have one from Usborne Children's Books and it contains the original version

http://www.usborne.com/catalogue/catalogue.aspx?cat=1&area=YR&subcat=YRS1&id=1932

[Lochie]

i was at a Surestart playgroup last month and at the singalong at the end we were told we could not sing 3 Blind Mice...think there is a lot of tinkering going on these days with the traditional rhymes we grew up with!

[buggie]

was going to say about 3 blind mice - found a version on Spotify to play the bugglet and the Farmer's Wife didn't cut off their tails anymore... but brain shrinkage means I can't remember what she did instead!

[Pickle]

I've been to a Bookstart session where "there was an old lady who swallowed a fly... perhaps she'll cry". I think it's complete madness! I don't have any lasting childhood scars from the versions of fairytales and nursery rhymes where they didn't live happily ever after.

My son was quite disappointed by a book he got from school today involving a pig and a wolf ("Suddenly") as he thought the wolf looked hungry and would have liked to eat the pig at the end :)

[The Nappy Lady]

It drives me crazy, we have a lot of the old Ladybird books from our childhood which we read to our girls, the wolves and trolls etc are truly scary & they love the stories.

Hate all this PC madness.

[gwod]

Never did much like Rock-a-bye Baby, though. I always try to avoid the falling, cradle and all bit and add something of my own where Daddy and I are there to catch them in s big stretched-out blanket! (Doesnt scan very well but, hey!)

[SummerMum]

I find it all quite amusing... as no matter what my boys will still go around fighting each other, 'killing' each other, and turning hair brushes in to guns to fire each other... And my daughter will sing 'hairspray'!

Penguin I think do all the classics, in the original version. I actually forgot how gruesome some of these are, but the kids always seem fine whatever version they read.

I taught my eldest the 'playground' version of a song she came home singing the other day... felt like a naughty school girl myself!

candj - I think I know the play you were at! I think all the parents find it rather amusant!