Many of the stories I read in the The Brothers Grimm are familiar to me. I suppose that is because I have a very strong Anglo-Saxon background on both sides of my family for at least 2 centuries. Some of the more obscure tales I am not as familiar with, but they remind me in some ways of Aesop's Fables, which were familiar to me as a child as well because we had a book titled just that. The difference between the two would be the implicit (Grimm) versus the stated (Aesop) moral of the story.
My mom did an excellent job of reading to us as children, even before there was a big media push to do so. It is because of this that I believe I am such a voracious reader. The interesting thing is that when she would read, she would give different voices to the characters, such as a deeper voice for a male, a higher pitched voice for a child and a growling voice for a wolf or a bear. I delighted in these tellings as these variations made the story more real. As I have read books to my nieces and nephews and tried to do the same thing, they don't like it and tell me to read it "normal" because they are not used to any variations. For me, however, a little bit of inflection and moderation of the voice goes a long way.
When I worked at the daycare center, I would also read books to the children there and I found that after reading the same books over and over again I began to memorize them and would then use the book with its pictures as a prop but I would take liberties with the telling of the story and it became more action oriented. The kids delighted in these story times as it was more engaging and involving. I would even have them tell part of the story as they became familiar with it. Having such tales and folklore written down is wonderful because it preserves them for future generations, but it loses some of its savor in the process.
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