Fairytales have not been kind to stepmothers. Usually depicted as jealous, manipulative and vicious, with a predilection for maltreating, disinheriting and murdering their stepchildren, stepmothers are probably on par with another favorite hate figure of the genre, the wicked witch. A typical example is found in “The Juniper Tree,” taken from Grimms’ Fairytales, published in 1812. This stepmother is not {…}