The Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault

Summary
There is nothing in this story that could offend younger age groups. Once upon a time a king and queen, bereft of children (until now), had their first child. As was custom in that land, they held a christening where seven fairies were to come and give the new princess one blessing each. However, instead of seven fairies, there were eight that attended the princesses' birthday bash. This eighth fairy was very very old and had not been invited for the king and queen had forgotten about her. The king quickly sent for another place setting for the eldest fairy, but it was not quite as nice as the seven before it. The old fairy took this as an insult and when it became her turn to give the princess a gift, she only gave her her death. On her sixteenth birthday, the princess was to prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die. At this, the palace was in an uproar. Until a young fairy, having feared this outcome, came out from behind a curtain and altered the previous "blessing" only slightly, but as much as she could. It would not be death the princess would be subject to on her sixteenth birthday, but only a deep sleep for 100 years--until a prince from a different kingdom kissed her awake. Trying to prevent this outrageous outcome, the king banned all spinning wheels in the kingdom, but one visit it to the summer cottage undid all of the precaution. While the princess was roaming the cottage one day, she came across an old woman who was spinning on an old spinning wheel. The princess thought this looked like fun and asked to try. She had barely begun when she pricked her finger and fell into a deep sleep (as had been foretold). The fairy who had counteracted the evil fairy's curse heard news of this from a dwarf with some really speedy boots, and headed straight for the princess in distress. She enchanted the entire castle to fall into a deep sleep so that the princess will not have missed as much. The king and queen then took off to run the kingdom leaving their only daughter behind. One hundred years later, a handsome prince is roaming through the forest by chance and questions the random turrets sticking up through the sky. He battled the thorns and bushes that had been overgrown in order to protect the castle, and made his way to the princess. When she awoke, her first words were, "You certainly took your time."