My son is anglo american - did part of his undergrad at University of N Carolina. I loved the first of the 'Dark materials' trilogy, Northern Lights but felt that the third was not as convincing . . The French word 'Conte' is either translated as story or tale, as you doubtless know. He also speaks French so read the Perrault in the original, which is a bit different . .
Yes it is a good idea to avoid the 's' word!
I think that some Fairy tales are about Mid Life Crisis - the ones like Rip van Winkle, and others like Thomas teh Rhymer where people go off with the faery folk and come back years later to a changed world . . .
