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Is not the “natural” suitability of the story for childhood based on some prejudices where ideas of primitivism, imagination and uncivilised thought are intermingled? The article proposes to clarify this relationship, starting by distinguishing between the notions of story, myth, legend and fable and by a critical examination of the positions of van Gennep and Frazer. D. Ottavi reviews the modern interpretations of the story from the point of view of its educational value (Bettelheim, Belmont) or in a more profound way its capacity to represent the real. She shows that in their transcription from oral to written versions the strong heritage focus of stories (Grimm, Perrault) and their use with children go hand in hand. According to the modern interpretation children are considered the depositories of an archaic, mythical knowledge. By attributing to stories their first role in the control of feelings, children thus become the first targets. But here too, Freud likeWittgenstein, shows that truth must be sought in the “unsettling strangeness” of the story, the experience of limits and the encounter with certain deep forms of terror.