I have been a dad for 18 years and am about to have my 7th kid. I read lots of different kids books to them, but usually when they are about 5 they start to love it when I read Grimms's Fairy Tales (before that they are bored when they hear them).
They nick name them the Death stories, and kinda laugh about how it is crazy they are stories for kids (so much disappointment when they make . But, damn if they don't always want to hear them all the time.
What is nice is there is nothing sugary sweet about them, and there are great lessons to untangle from the stories. Sometimes the lesson though is that sometimes bad stuff just happens, and you have to deal with it.
It also has a sliver of a view of how people long ago saw things and what was important then, and what still is important today.
We are almost through our second lap through the book, and I could see another lap or two through it as our next child comes into listening to it, then maybe I'll be reading it to my grandchildren.