To my university students, wherever they are, m their homes or classrooms,

and to young teachers-in-training who like to read and tell stories to children,

this book is affectionately dedicated.

^opyrighi 1952, bv Scott, Foresman and Company Printed in the tjnited States of America

> aa s 〇 ־ ־ ® Ï ° ־

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E n g l is h f o l k t a ie »

The Old Woman and Her Pig The Story of the Three Bears The Story of the Three Little Pigs Henny-PennyThe Cock, the Mouse, and the

Little Red Hen The Travels of a Fox Master of All Masters Mr. Vinegar T attercoats Tom T it TotThe Black Bull of Norroway Whittington and His Cat

G e r m a n f o l k t a l e s

The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids The Elves and the Shoemaker The Four Musicians Mother Holle v/"The Hut in the Forest The Frog-King Hansel and Gretel Snow-White and Rose-Red Clever ElsieSnow-White and the Seven Dwarfs The Fisherman and His Wife

The Three Billy Goats Gruff い סך1 he Pancake 71Why the Bear Is Stumpy-Tailed ^3The Lad Who Went to the North^Wind 74 Boots and His Brothers נידThe Princess on the Glass Hill 78Gudbrand on the Hill-Side 82The Husband Who Was to Mind the House 84 Little Freddy with His Fiddle 85East 0’ the Sun and West 0’ the Moon 88The Most Obedient Wife 93

F r e n c h f o l k t a le a g6

The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood 97Cinderella or the Little Glass Slipper 99The Master Cat 102Beauty and the Beast 105The White Cat 113

S p a n i s h f o l k ta le a !20

The Half-Chick 120The Jokes of Single-Toe 122

I r ia h f o lk t a le a !24

I25C'or*flia tîie Fairy Maiden 127

C O N T E N T S

T E L L I N G S T O R I E S A N D R E A D •

I N G A L O U D T O C H I L D R E N viii

O L D M A G I C s

T H E F O L K T A L E S 2

/RumpelstiltskinOne־Eye，Two-Eyes, and Three־£yes The Goose-Girl The Water of Life

S c a n d in a v ia n f o lk t a le a

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T I M E F O R F A I R Y T A L E S V T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

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A F in n ish f o l k t a l e 128

Hidden Laiva or the Golden Ship 128

C z e c h o s lo v a k ia n f o l k t a le a 132

Budulinek 132Clever Manka 136

R u t s i a n f o l k t a le a 1g8

Sadko 138The Fire-Bird, the Horse of Power, and

the Princess Vasilissa 142

E a s t I n d ia n f o l k t a le »

The Hare That Ran Away 148Granny’s Blackie 148The Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal 149 The Banyan Deer 151

A t a l e f r o m t h e **Arabian N i § h t t " 1^2

Aladdjn and the Wonderful Lamp 152

J a p a n e s e f o l k t a l e s

Momotaro: Boy-of-the-Peach Urashima Taro and the Princess of the Sea

A C h in e s e f o l k t a l e

The Fox’s Daughter

V a r i a n t s o f E u r o p e a n f o l k ta le a in th e U n i t e d S t a t e s

The Gingerbread Boy The Gift of Saint Nicholas Jack and the Robbers Fill, Bowl! Fill!

N o r t h A m e r i c a n I n d ia n f o l k t a le »

Little Burnt-Face 〇־ The Two-Faces •ぐ

159

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166

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168

168169172175

177

M l” 々9

T a l l ta le a

The Camp on the Big Onion Pecos Bill and His Bouncing Bride The Boomer Fireman’s Fast Sooner

Hound

S t o r i e s f r o m " tJn c le I t e m u »99

The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story How Mr. Rabbit Was Too Sharp for

Mr. FoxThe Wonderful Tar-Baby Story (adapted) “Heyo, House!”Brother Rabbit’s Astonishing Prank Mr. Rabbit Meets His Match Again

O L D M O R A L I T I E S z

T H E F A B L E S

A e g o p 9» t a b l e s

The Hare with Many Friends The Ant and the Grasshopper The Fox and the Crow The Lion and the Mouse Hercules and the Waggoner The Dog in the Manger The Shepherd's BoyThe Town Mouse and the Country MouseThe Frog and the OxBelling the CatThe Dog and the ShadowThe Wind and the SunThe Fox and the GrapesThe Crow and the PitcherThe Milkmaid and Her PailThe Wolf in Sheep’s ClothingThe Hare and the Tortoise

F a b l e s o f B i d p a i

The Partridge and the CrowThe Tyrant Who Became a Just Ruler

F a b le s o f l .a F o n ta in e

The Fox and the Crow The Cricket and the Ant The Grasshopper and the Ant

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T I M E F O R F A I R Y T A L E S V i T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

G O D S A N D M E N :

M Y T H A N D E P I C

G r e e k a n d R o m a n M j/ th a n d E p ie

Clyde w Arachne レ’Orpheus and Eurydice ProserpineIcarus and Daedalus ״Cupid and Psyche Atalanta’s Race Baucis and Philemon Pegasus and the Chimaera Midas

'— The Golden Touch ^The Curse of Polyphemus

TVorae m y t h s

How Thor Found His riammer The Death of BalderI

A n E n g li» h h e r o t a l e

Little John and the Tanner of Blyth

M A G I C :

M O D E R N F A N C I F U L T A L E S

Ask Mr. Bear, Marjorie Flack Copy-Kitten, Helen and Alf Evers Nothing at All, Wanda Gag Sonny-Boy Sim, Elizabeth W. Baker Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel,

Virginia BurtonThe Story of Mrs. Tubbs, Hugh Looting How She Kept Her Geese Warm, Hope

NewellHow She Made the Baby Elephant Happy,

Hope NewellTangerina, Ruth Stiles Gannett The Island, Ruth Stiles Gannett Willie^ Bad Night, Robert Lawson Pippi Plays Tag with Some Policemen,

Astrid LindgrenThe Real Princess, Hans Christian

AndersenThe Plain Princess, Phyllis McGinley

/T he Ugly Duckling, Hans ChristianAndersen 291

-T he 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins,Dr. Seuss 296

״ That Is Why He Was Always Called'׳Pooh/׳ A. A. Milne 302

Pooh Goes Visiting and Gets into a Tight Place, A. A. Milne 304

The Magic Bed-Knob, Mary Norton 306Shawneen and the Gander, Richard

Bennett 310The Elephant's Child, Rudyard Kipling 316 Captain Cook, Richard and Florence

Atwater 320Troubles with a Penguin, Richard and

Florence Atwater 321The Thirteenth Floor, Joan Howard 323Mrs. Wallaby Jones, Joan Howard 328Electricity, Robert Lawson 331

^rTht Steadfast Tin Soldier, Hans ChristianAndersen 333

^Tlie Wild Swans, Hans ChristianAndersen 335

t^The Swineherd, Hans Cnristian Andersen 343 Pinocchio, Carlo Lorenzini 346

f The Emperor’s New Clothes, HarwChristian Andersen 348

The Open Road, Kenneth Grahame 351The Lady Who Put Salt in Her Coffee,

Lucretia Hale 356Mrs. Peterkin Wishes to Go to Drive,

Lucretia Hale 359About Elizabeth Eliza״s Piano, Lucretia

Hale 360The Night of the Big Wind, Arthur

Mason 360The Skillful Huntsman, Howard Pyle 364The King of the Golden River, or the

Black Brothers, John Ruskin 367How They Bring Back the Village of

Cream Puffs When the Wind Blows It Away, Carl Sandburg 379

A Mad Tea-Party, Lewis Carroll 381Airy-Go-Round, William Pêne du Bois 384Space Ship Bifrost, Robert A. Heinlein 389

B I B L I O G H A P B Y 394

I N D E X 401

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T I M E F O R F A I R Y T A L E S v l l T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

TE1XING STOHIES ANH

READING ALOUD TO CHILDREN

The principal of an elementary school paused in the hall, as a burst of contagious laughter rang out suddenly from the children in a sec* ond-grade room. Smiling involuntarily, the prin- cipal stepped into the room to see what had occasioned the merriment. The teacher was com- fortably seated, reading aloud to her children, who were sitting, not with folded hands, but in a variety of relaxed positions. Their eyes were shining, their faces alive with interest as they an- ticipated the next ludicrous mishap that would overtake “Sonny-Boy Sim” in the forest. The principal remained to hear the hilarious conclu- sion ot the story and the children’s chuckles and comments. Then she went on her way thought- fully. The children in that second-grade room were good readers. Why was the teacher spending time reading aloud? But come to think of it, that teacher always read aloud to her children and told stories, too. And whether she had a bright group or dull, her children were invariably in- terested in books and tackled their own reading activities with enthusiasm. Was there any con- nection between the children’s interest in read- ing and the teacher’s policy of telling stories and reading aloud? Perhaps so, but what could it be?

Why tell stories and read aloud to children?

There are many reasons why a program of tell- ing stories and reading aloud to children is favor- able to their own learning-to-read program. First, all normal children, bright or dull, good readers or poor, need to have their reading interests ex- panded. They get into a rut. Some children de- mand fairy tales and more fairy tales or horse stories and more horse stories. A grownup can

introduce them to better examples of their favor- ite sort of reading and gradually lead them into other fields and other subjects. One teacher whose children were sure they disliked biography began to tell them exciting or poignant episodes from some of the new biographies. She soon had her children reading that form of literature avidly. Many a mother has made poetry lovers of her children because she liked to read it aloud and shared her pleasure with her children. It is the business of adults in homes as well as schools to expand children’s reading interests by expos* ing them to a variety of literature.

This sounds like a dangerous reduction of e£- fort the child should make for himself. And it is dangerous if it is used to the point where it be- comes a substitute for the child’s own reading. But if storytelling and reading aloud are used now and then, as special treats, they serve as in- comparable baits to an expanded experience with books.

The second reason why reading aloud and tell- ing stories to children are desirable practices is that they help reduce the lag between the child*s ability to read for himself and his capacity to un- derstand and enjoy literature. Such a lag exists for all except a few older children who are supe- rior readers. For most children there is a differ- ence of from one to three years (and even more in exceptional cases) between their reading skill and their level of appreciation. This becomes evident to the most casual observer if he follows the stories the child enjoys in the moving pic- tures and on radio or television and compares them with the necessarily limited content of the materials with which the child is learning to read. Until a child acquires an easy fluency in

T I M E F O R F A I R Y T A L E S v l H T E L L I N G S T O R I E S A N D R E A D I N G A L O U D

It is curious in an age as realistic and mecha* nized as ours that the magic of the folk tales still casts its spell on modern children. Witches and dragons, talking beasts and rebellious pan- cakes, flying carpets and cloaks of darkness, fair- ies and wise women, spells and enchantments are accepted as casually by children as airplanes and television.

It is true that the modern child becomes inter- ested in fairy tales later than people used to think, and perhaps he wears them out a little sooner. Except for a few of the simplest nursery tales of “The Little Red Hen” and “The Story of the Three Little Pigs״ variety, the peak of

O L D M A G I C : T H E F O L K T A L E S

children’s interest in tales of magic seems to fall somewhere around eight- or nine-years-old and not earlier. After nine there is a continued but steadily diminishing interest in such stories through the ages of ten, eleven, and twelve years. There are many reasons why the modern child still enjoys these tales, as we shall see, and why it is well to delay his exposure to any great num- ber of them until sometime after the six-year-old period.

In the first place, most of these old stories were created by adults for the entertainment of other

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