Silly & Sillier: Read Aloud Tales from Around the World

Book by Sierra Judy

A NOTE TO PARENTS, TEACHERS AND ALL STORYTELLERS

Here is a collection of the world's funniest stories to read aloud to children ages three to seven. These traditional tales, ones that have been passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation, come from twenty countries and six continents. For at least as long as people have kept written records, we know that parents and grandparents have told children stories about talking animals, magic, and monsters. Nowadays, teachers and librarians join family members in recounting these sorts of tales to children.

What tickles a young child's funny bone? Repetition, in and of itself, can be hilarious to children. Talking objects, like the stick and the fire in "Toontoony Bird," a tale from Bangladesh, provoke giggles. And so do unusual -sounding nonsense words, like the name of the witch, Koolimasunder W Diamondpaw, in "Clever Mandy," a tale from the Bahamas. When these words and names and phrases arc repeated for the second or third time, children will delight in saying them right along with you.

But these seemingly silly tales are also offering important lessons. Good is rewarded and wrongdoing is punished. The smallest and least significant creatures prove to be the most helpful friends-or the most fearsome enemies. Cleverness and trickery are important tools of the small and weak, but they must never be used thoughtlessly. The lowly tortoise in the Nigerian tale "The Tortoise and the Iroko Man," who tricks innocent bystanders into taking his punishment, is himself punished by having his smooth shell cracked for all eternity. These tales reinforce a child's strong sense of justice while providing a glimpse into other lands and cultures.

In most of the tales in this collection, the weakest animal or the smallest child triumphs through cleverness, kindness, and persistence. And, probably because grandparents and other elders were frequently the family's storytellers, some of the stories have old men and old women as the heroes and heroines.

Children love to hear accounts of powerful adults, terrible monsters, and dangerous animals who behave like complete idiots. Stories reveal harmless fools for what they are, but evil fools are punished, or tricked into punishing themselves, like the giant who begs the tiny mouse deer to tie him up in "Too Many Fish," a tale from Borneo.

Part of the fun of sharing stories from far-flung regions of the world is discovering the ways in which they are similar to favorite stories we've long known. I've included a tale from the Bahamas that resembles "Rumpelstiltskin." In it Clever Mandy must guess the name of a witch or be her servant forever. A Czech rooster named Kuratko the Terrible devours a series of bigger and bigger people, objects, and animals, much like the infamous old lady who swallowed a fly. The Irish tale "The Wonderful Pancake" begins like "The Little Red Hen, but when the hen and her lazy housemates start to argue over who will eat the pancake, the little pancake jumps out of the pan, runs away, and has an adventure like that of the Gingerbread Man.

Storytellers in many cultures use short, formulaic beginnings and endings for their tales, like our "once upon a time." I have included these with stories whenever possible. The beginning formula lets listeners know that the story that follows, though true on one level, is make-believe. The Irish tale "The Wonderful Pancake" happened "once upon a time, when pigs were swine and birds made their nests in old men's beards." The opening formula, yaki boud, yaki na boud (once there was and once there was not), used in "The Singing Pumpkin," our Iranian tale, conveys perfectly the idea that stories are both true and untrue. Ending formulas return the listener to the real world, sometimes by passing the role of storyteller to the next person, as in the Argentine

"Zapatito roto, y usted me cuenta otro. Little broken shoe, the next tale comes from you."

Zestful dramatization will make these stories even more fun for young listeners. There are rhymes and chants that want to be sung. There are gullible giants, sneaky tricksters, annoying bugs, pompous kings, and small heroes and heroines who beg that you portray them with booming voices, squeaky voices, or just plain silly voices. The words and chants in the stories are often onomatopoeic, more sound than sense, and defy translation. I have left many in the original language. You and your listeners can invent your own pronunciations for these foreign words and your own melodies for the rhymes, chants, and jingles. In doing so, you will make these tales truly your own. Enjoy!

-Judy Sierra September 2002