Jacobs' Fairytales (English Fairy Tales)

Tales Read: Fairy Ointment, The Three Sillies, The Lad of Hilton, The Story of the Three Little Pigs
Author: Joseph Jacobs
Publisher: webpage created by Philipp Lenssen with Authorama
Copyright: Couldn't find a date for his tales but he lived from 1854 to 1916; webpage last updated in 2003
Genre: Fairytales
Pages: (Online)
Reading Level: Ages 9 to 12 (Powell's Books)
Summary: In the tale Fairy Ointment a nurse named Dame Goody is approached by a "squinny-eyed, ugly" man and he asks for her service to watch his and his wife's baby because his wife is too ill to do so. She accepts and he takes her off on a black horse with fiery eyes to his home. The mother tells the nurse that when the baby opens his eyes she should rub this ointment on his eyes. Never having seen such a thing, the nurse does this but out of curiosity, puts some on her own right eye as well. All of a sudden everything looks beautiful. She doesn't tell anyone what she's done and the man takes her home. The next day, while she is shopping, she sees the same man stealing from the store. When she goes to talk to him he is surprised that she can see him and asks which eye she can see him out of. She tells him she can see him with her right eye and he pokes it out and she can't see him anymore and can only see out of her left eye for the rest of her life.
Who would you recommend this book to? I would be okay with kids reading some but not all of these fairytales. I probably wouldn't recommend this specific one though. It's a little graphic and weird. Most of them would be good for older children who would have a little better understanding and maturity to be ready for these.
Potential problems or conflicts: I don't see any potential problems or conflicts with this book.
My reaction: Personally, I thought that these fairytales were a little bit weird. They were kind of random and funny but weird. I didn't like the language as much as the language of the other fairytales too. I think the main thing I got out of these is that at least they teach kids good values (even if sometimes it's through lack of characters having/using those values in the story).