Retold by Margaret Read MacDonald
Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa
The genre of folktales is one that is sadly overlooked in the children’s department at our library. When weeding books out of our collection this past spring, I was conscious of how very many folktales retold for children do not get checked out. When books don’t get checked out, we weed them out to make room for books that will get checked out. But I wish that more families would read the folktales.
This Japanese folktale and cautionary tale is about a poor flower seller whose one act of generosity earns him a thank you gift from the Dragon King. The gift is a little boy with a very snotty nose. The flower seller is told that if he feeds the little boy shrimp with vinegar and sugar, he will bring the flower seller luck.
The flower seller discovers that if he wishes for something when he feeds the little snot-nosed boy, the little boy will blow whatever the man wishes for out of his nose after he has finished eating. (Really? Lucky snot?)
The man wishes for more and more things each day, as he feeds the little snot-nosed boy. Eventually, though, the flower seller begins to feel resentful of the little snot-nosed boy. It takes too much time out of his day to feed the little boy. Watching him eat the shrimp is disgusting. So, he turns the little snot-nosed boy out of his palace and tells him to go back where he came from.
The little boy does… and takes with him all of the gifts the flower seller wished for, leaving the flower seller very alone and very, very poor.
The beautiful pictures in this book, as well as the bizarre nature of the story intrigued me. I love stories that teach us to use and value the idea of enough and this tale does that. I think this story would work well as a read-aloud, possibly to children five to seven years old.
No comments:
Post a Comment