"The enduring appeal of fairy tales is not just due to their fantastical elements—dragons, enchanted sleeping princesses, fairy godmothers—or the wish-fulfillment of happily-ever-after, but their encapsulation of truths about man and morality. Indeed, beneath the fluff, fairy tales are often brutally realistic about the world. This is why so many modern efforts to write (or rewrite) fairy tales fall flat: they are being written by those with a poor grasp of reality."