Based on a fable from Aesop, the Sun and the Wind test their strength by seeing which of them can cause a man to remove his coat, demonstrating the value of using gentle persuasion rather than brute force as a means of achieving a goal.
In this action packed folktale from Panama, a clever little rabbit and his Tía Mónica find ways to outwit a fox, a tiger, and a lion, all of whom want to eat him for lunch.
With a tiny, cluttered house, giggling children, and a snoring wife, the poor man can't get a good night's sleep. If only, he thinks, I had a big quiet house! He throws off his covers and goes to visit the wise old woman at the edge of the village. Surely she can help him solve his problem. And she does, but not without giving him some very unusual advice. Bring a chicken into your house, she suggests. And when that doesn't work, she has him add a goat, a horse, a cow, and even a sheep. The ending of the story proves, as so many ancient folktales do, that quite often, nonsense makes the best sense of all.
This collection of 31 stories comes from all over the world and different variations can be found in a variety of cultures that have been passed over the grapevine and adapted in different cultural traditions.
This collection of delightful tales from around the world and through the ages explains why an animal, plant, or natural object looks or acts the way it does.
As a companion to her award-winning story collection Three Minute Tales, Margaret Read MacDonald has compiled another delightful collection of entertaining stories from around the world edited especially for the tastes and interests of young readers.
