My three and a half year old son loves this story which is about a gingerbread boy who runs away from people and animals who want to eat him, only to wind up in a river, on the back of a sly fox, who pretends not to be interested in him. The fox eats the boy but this story is not scary. My son tells me it is "OK that the fox ate the gingerbread boy because he is really a cookie, and not a real boy". I would not recommend this book to kids who are three and younger as it might scare and confuse them. This is an older traditional story, a classic. Highly recommended.