![]() That’s the main message in The Wooden Sword: A Jewish Folktale from Afghanistan, retold by Ann Redish Stampler. On the flip side of being greedy is truly being happy with what you have. Only when he learns the value of taking one day a week completely off, does he understand the true beauty of Shabbat. He tries to recreate Shabbat in his kingdom, but goes to excess and quickly turns the beauty of the day of rest into a horrible situation where people run out of food yet cannot work to get more. When he shares a quiet Sabbath meal with Rabbi Judah and his family, he is shocked by the simplicity, but amazed by the taste. King Antoninus wants everything to be BIGGER as a way to show his power. The story focuses on two characters, King Antoninus of Rome and Rabbi Judah. That is why the book Too Much of A Good Thing, which explains the special day of Shabbat, is good for any child, regardless of their religious background. The concept of excess is very hard for a child to comprehend, especially when they have a desire to possess everything that they see. As the snot-nosed boy says, “You just can’t help some humans…and he never once said ‘thank you.'” When he locks the boy out of his home, his wishes all disappear and he is left with nothing. He keeps making bigger wishes, but is angry at having to care for the boy. All the flower seller needs to do is feed the boy shrimp with vinegar and sugar and his wishes will be granted. In the retelling by Margaret Read MacDonald, when a poor flower seller gives his extra flowers to the Dragon King he is given a gift in return – a snot-nosed boy who grants wishes. When the wife’s greed takes over, she learns a very valuable lesson in how to treat others.Īnother Japanese folktale that warns of the problems with greed is The Boy from the Dragon Palace. The husband is rewarded for his gentle nature, his manners, and his undemanding ways. The Tongue-Cut Sparrow is a Japanese folktale that shows this concept embodied by the kindhearted husband and his mean-spirited, greedy wife. There are many folktales that try to teach children that greed can do more harm than good. This might be a good book for older children learning about other cultures while also learning about the joy we get from helping others rather than only thinking of ourselves. Ma Ling tricks the emperor in order to save himself and get back to using the paintbrush to help others. A greedy emperor hears about the boy and demands selfish things of Ma Ling. He dreams one night and receives a magic paintbrush with which he does good deeds. ![]() This classic folktale from China tells of a poor boy who wants more than anything to be a painter, but he lacks supplies. He realizes the error of his ways and Rani makes him promise that from then on, he only takes as much rice as he actually needs. ![]() The raja doesn’t mind parting with one grain of rice, but by the end of the story, he has given Rani more than one billion grains of rice. ![]() ![]() She does this by asking him for only one grain of rice, but that for the next 30 days he will have to double the amount. A smart village girl manages to trick the raja into giving her most of the rice so that she can feed her people. When the famine does come, the raja does not make good on his promises and instead lets his people go hungry. He promises to store the rice in case of famine. In this tale a raja decrees that everyone in his province must give him nearly all of their yearly rice crops. One Grain of Rice is a marvelous mathematical folktale by Demi that both of my girls really enjoyed. The list could go on and on, but here are ten that we have recently read that are completely non-traditional for mainstream western world and quite wonderful. One of the things that I find especially fascinating is reading folktales from a wide variety of cultures to see how similar situations are handled differently and how each culture tries to educate its children on how they are supposed to behave. There are so many tales that have been passed down through the generations and we have learned so many valuable lessons from them. Folktales are such a wonderful part of children’s literature. ![]()
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