MULTICULTURAL
STORIES
(excerpts
from posts)
(If you want to retell any of the stories listed below, be sure
to obtain permission from the copyright
holder if the material is not in the public domain)
1) http://www.sacredvoices.com
2) For ages 3 - 10:
From Europe:
Three Fools, Italian folktales, Danny
Kaye's Folktales from around the World
The Lady of the Sea, Brittany coastline,
British folktale, Cricket Magazine,
90's?
Bridge of San Martin (may be too
old for littles) Spanish Folktale, Richard Marsh
Tarpeia, Roman folktale, Sara Cone
Bryant's 1905 How to Tell Stories
Slops, a tale from Wales, Margaret
Read MacDonald's Peace Tales
From North America:
How Possum lost the Hair on His Tail,
Native American, several tribes
How Bear Got a Stumpy Tail, Native
American, several tribes, Bear Stories
Why Fox has a white tip on His Tail,
Navajo folktale, Animal Stories
Why Turtle's Back is Cracked - Native
American, also told as African folktale
Baby Rattlesnake, Lynn Moroney, Chicksaw
folktale, book of same name
Mule Eggs, Appalachian folktale,
my version adapted from Ray Hicks, NSN Fest '99
Molly Pitcher, historical folktale
time of Revolutionary War (more for 10's than littles)
Why Egret has a Long Neck, Cajun/Southern
folktale
Why Cardinal is Red, Cherokee folktale,
Pleasant DeSpain, Eleven Nature Tales
The Suncatcher, Algonquin folktale,
Pleasant DeSpain, Eleven Nature Tales
From South America:
The Emerald Lizard, Guatamalan folktale,Pleasant
DeSpain, from book same name
Senorita and the Puma, Argentenian
folktale, Pleasant DeSpain, from Emerald
Lizard
Tia Miseria, Puerto Rican folktale,
internet bare bones adaptation
From Russia:
It Could Always be Worse, Russian/Jewish
folktale, from book of same name
Very Important Field Mouse, Russian
folktale, Teeny Tiny Folktales
From Asia:
Brave Little Parrot, Indian folktale,
Rafe Martin's Best Loved Tales
Friendship Orchard, Central Asian
Folktale, Pleasant DeSpain, Eleven Nature
Tales
Sun Legend, Vietnamese folktale,
Lyn Vuong, Sky Legends of Vietnam
Lord Bag of Rice, Japanese folktale,
The Magic Pomegranet, Turkish folktale
Holding Up the Sky (very short) Chinese
folktale, M. R. MacDonald, Peace Tales
From Africa:
Why Spiders have Small Waists
Monkey's Heart, Swahili folktale,
Nick Greaves, When Lion Could Fly
All Things are Connected, Zaire folktale,
Pleasant DeSpain, Eleven Nature Tales
Strength, Limba folktale, Margaret
Read MacDonald, Peace Tales
The Lion's Whisker, Somalian Folktale
from Ethiopia, M. R. McDonald, Peace Tales
3) There are so many throughout the world. Just yesterday had
a preschool teacher needing Arctic &
Antarctic material. Gave from geography, & biome, & specific
animals, & the picture book section &
then talked her into a bit from the folklore section with some
Arctic tales, mentioning that, unless
she did stories of exploration, there were no Antarctic tales
& that was worth discussing with the
children.
4) Here are my some of my favorites for multicultural work with
elementary children. This is my
favorite area, so I have lots!
The following books are really nice for multicultural work with
children:
Everybody Cooks Rice, Everybody Bakes Bread
by Norah Dooley
Loaves of Fun by Elizabeth M. Harbison.
Many of the stories listed below are from Amy Friedman and Jillian
Gilliland.
From Africa:
Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears
Why Cats Live in the Houses of Women
Who’s In Rabbit’s House?
The Tug of War
From China:
Flower Dragon (resourceful, good
and brave child heroine saves herself and mother)
Ping the Duck (one of my favorites
as a child) (better stay with your family!)
Vietnam: Why the Monsoons Come (I
tell this with two-sided puppets on paint sticks)
From Japan:
Issun Boshi (Little One-Inch, or
Inch-High Samurai) (brave tho small can win heart’s desire)
The Rice Ball (published as a children’s
book)
From Scotland:
The Boggart (not the novel but a
story I found in Salt and Pepper for Children,
an old book on our
library’s shelves) "Now if you’ve ever had trouble
in your house, you’ll understand how it’s easy to
let it in, but not so easy to get it out." (cautionary but
fun)
From Russia:
Masha and the Bear (clever solution
by girl)
From England:
12 Men and Counting (silly/value
of understanding numbers)
Princess Furball (because she is
so resourceful and saves herself! -retold by Charlotte Huck –
I’m
unsure of national derivation but she mentions England and the
Grimms)
From Mexico:
The Very Elegant Rooster ( fun listing
-like piggy over the stile or Pancakes, Pancakes or House that
Jack Built)
From Ireland:
The Legend of Knockmany Hill (woman’s
wile saves the big man)
From Finland:
The Stubborn Wife (just desserts?)
From Norway:
The Troll’s Eye (kindness)
From Turkey:
Hodja’s Fine Coat (other variations
from the Islamic culture/countries also i.e. The Mulla’s
....)
(superficial values)
From Italy:
The Lesson of the Cats (greed)
From Fiji:
How the Mosquitoes Left Kambara (wit)
And one of my very favorites, although perhaps not for children
(some might think not) is the Zen
story, A Monk with Heavy Thoughts,
found in Heather Forest’s Wisdom Tales
from Around the
World. "As two Zen monks walked along a muddy, rain-drenched
road, they came upon a lovely
woman attempting to cross a large mud puddle. [I must admit to
some aggravation that for some
reason men but not women are able to cross mud puddles!] The elder
monk stopped beside the woman,
lifted her in his arms, and carried her across the puddle. He
set her gently down on the ridge of the
road as the younger monk discreetly admired her charms. After
bowing politely to the woman, the two
monks continued down the muddy road. The younger monk was sullen
and silent as they walked
along. They traveled over the hills, down around the valleys,
through a town, and under forest trees.
At last, after many hours had passed, the younger monk scolded
the elder, ‘You are aware that we
monks do not touch women! Why did you carry that girl?’ The
elder monk slowly turned and smiled.
He said, ‘My dear young brother, you have such heavy thoughts!
I left the woman alongside the road
hours ago. Why are you still carrying her?’"
5) A favourite of many tellers who have one "Irish"
story in their repertoire is A Legend of
Knockmany. It's a great yarn, I tell it, and I included
it in my Irish legends book, though with a
warning: it's a 19th-century burlesque -- and decidedly anti-Irish
-- literary legend written by an
Irishman from the lower classes who "improved" himself
by sucking up to the Anglo-Irish
ascendancy. The cowardly and boastful "hero" is Fin
MacCool, a degraded vestige of the most popular
hero of the common folk, Fionn mac Cumhaill, who is himself a
relic of the oldest myths of Ireland. I
only tell Knockmany after introducing
listeners to the real Fionn through some of the canonical tales,
eg, Fionn and the Burning of Tara
and Tír na nÓg (Oisín
and Niamh), both of which are on my
website. Several others are in Lady Gregory's
Gods and Fighting Men, which is in print and also
online. All of these have more "actual cultural content and
value" than Knockmany, unless
you
want an example of the attitude of the landlord class towards
the culture of the people they oppressed.
That said, A Legend of Knockmany
(the name it bears in Yeats' Fairy and Folk
Tales of the Irish
Peasantry), which was apparently invented by opportunistic
tour guides at the Giants Causeway on
the north Antrim coast when that geological wonder was discovered
by Londoners in the 19th century,
has become accepted as a local folk tale and is now to be found
in oral tradition. It even has a satirical
piss-take book version, written and illustrated by Stephen Hall,
who grew up in the vicinity and
learned it from his grandfather. It is on sale at the Giants Causeway
visitors centre.
Knockmany Hill is a real place in County Tyrone.
http://www.legendarytours.com/storyteller.html
Comment:
Your take on The Legend
of Knockmany reminds me of a local legend here in Illinois.
Where I live,
close to St. Louis in the middle of the US, we have few local
legends from the Native Americans who
made their home here. For hundreds of years there were thousands
and many tribes including the
Cahokians who lived at or near the world heritage site, Cahokia
Mounds (a hammering stone's throw
from my house). From my understanding the tribes disbanded long
before the European claimed the
land. So, the actual legends from this area are few. However,
there is one that everyone tells as a true
NA story. It's a fantastic story about the Piasa
Bird.
*(See comment below) When Lewis and Clark made their historical
journey up the rivers and opened
the West as part of the Louisana Purchase, they saw a rock painting
and described it in their journal.
One of the problems with the story of the Piasa "Bird"
is that nowhere in the discription are there
wings. In fact, the other rock paintings found at that time period
had no wings. It was a fierce looking
lion-type figure...but no wings. The story relies heavily on the
fact that the creature had wings. They
have a replica of the Piasa Bird in Alton along the bluffs where
Lewis and Clark travelled...and it has
wings, now. According to John White, a scholor on the Illini Indians
of this area, the story was a
complete fabrication. It seems that during the late 1800's there
were many writers who took a bit of
the folklore and bent and shaped it to fit the story they wanted
to tell.
Do I tell the story? Rarely. It's still a great little story.
But I always have to tell my audience that this
is a story within the story of how it came to be. I think The
Piasa Bird and The Legend of Knockmany
probably enter the backdoor of folklore and at some time be accepted
as part of the lore no matter how
hard we try to keep the record straight How many times have we
heard the famous speech purportedly
given by Chief Seattle was really an environmentist in the early
70's? And still I hear it as gospel that
it was Chief Seattle. It's there. It's become just another part
of the altered perspective of history...
unless...
*Comment: It was not Lewis and Clark
who wrote about the Piasa Bird is was much earlier when the
French missionaries made their way up the Mississippi. It was
in Fr. Jacques Marquette's jounal in
which he said: According to the diary, the Piasa "was as
large as a calf with horns like a deer, red
eyes, a beard like a tiger's, a face like a man, the body covered
with green, red and black scales and a
tail so long it passed around the body, over the head and between
the legs." If you'd like to read more
about the Piasa Bird you can look at:
http://www.altonweb.com/history/piasabird
6) I found this traditional tale while researching today and I
think it will be a wonderful way to begin
multicultural program in March. I wanted to share it with all
of you. The main site of CanTeach is
wonderful as well if you care to look around after you read this
story.
CanTeach: Africa - Where Stories Come From (A Traditional Zulu
Story)
http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/africa2.html
7) Don't forget The Coming of the Legends,
Joseph Bruchac's Iroquois Stories, Heroes
and Heroines,
Monsters and Magic, Crossing Press, Freedom, CA, 1985
ISBN 0-89594-167-8.
A young boy sought shelter by a great rock. As he was chipping
flint from the rock, a deep voice said,
"I will tell a story." The rock asked the boy to give
one of the birds he'd killed hunting that day. Then
the rock told tales of how things were in the former world. The
boy returned many times bringing
other birds and other listeners. The standing rock told legends
until the boy was a man who had the
responsibility to carry these stories to the people.
8) Try these!
http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~er719/blackbx.html
9) The Walloping Window Blind by
Charles E. Carryl.
http://www.geocities.com/hornett.geo/song18.html
10) These are a few I highly recommend. Some of my favorite stories
from around the world:
Africa-Check out these books
Songs and Stories from Uganda by
W. Moses Serwadda and Hewitt Pantaleoni!
He includes actual music and a pronunciation key in the front.
I don't particularly appreciate his
story endings, so I have devised my own. I also change the names
of the characters to make them
more accessible to students. For example, "Nsangi" became
"Ewanna and the Gorilla" . The melodies
and words are easy to pick up, but you have to practice them a
lot to become proficient with them. Also,
I don't use all of the words when sharing the song. I keep it
very simple so audiences can help to sing
the English words rather than the Ugandan words. I also tie the
stories in with other stories I know
from this area. There is so much here, you'll have fun with these.
Audiences love these stories!!
Hyena & the Moon Stories to Tell from
Kenya by Heather McNeil. My personal favorite is Peace
&
Quiet. It is a story about a vulture and a chameleon. The
story lends itself to lots of creative
storytelling techniques because of vulture's boasting and chameleon's
quiet demeanor. Audiences
love this story!!!
African Folktales by Paul Radin.
ISBN # 0-8052-0732-5 Again, I change the story endings. I find
many
of the African Tales too violent. But if you use your imagination,
you can create quite an original
collection of stories for yourself using these stories as a springboard
to catapult your storytelling
creativity.
Asian:
I really like Folk Stories of the Hmong,
People of Laos, Thailand and Vietnam (ISBN # 0-87287-854-6)
compiled by Norma Livo & Dia Cha. The information at the beginning
of the book is very informative
and provides background information that is useful when sharing
these stories.
Homeless Bird & The
Shard are both award winning childrens' novels. I like
to share condensed
versions of great stories and encourage children to read the stories.
Without fail, when they learn
there is more of the story to be shared, they check the books
out. The way to share a condensed
version is to find a part of the story that is most appealing
to you. Then recreate that part of the
story for children. It's a bit more work involved, but well worth
the effort!
Tales from the Roof of the World (Folktales
of Tibet) by Gioia Timpanelli.Russian:
The Little Clay Hut is a book of
Russian Folktales about Animals. Incidentally, Scott Orson Card's
clever and intriguing book Enchantment
is set in old and modern Russia and America. You can take
this wonderful story and recreate a 15- to 20-minute microversion
of the larger tale. I love sharing the
part when the airplane is transported back to ancient Russia by
the wily Baba Yaga!
South America
I love sharing stories from this region. They are so rich and
full of mystery and life. Any books by
Carol Cumes will be rich with stories that you can rework into
incredible tales. Having actually been
there and met Carol, I have a rich source to draw upon. However,
I didn't learn of Carol's stories until
I got back to the States. I thought her books were more for tourists.
I learned differently later. I also
brought back some artifacts such as a shaman's rattle, llama wrap,
dolls, masks and more, which I
actually use in sharing stories from that area.
Other books I use for Multicultural Resources:
Magical Tales from Many Lands retold
by Margaret Mayo. UNICEF's Festival Book
More Stories of Favorite Operas by
Clyde Robert Bulla
Tales Alive by Susan Milord (this
book also has great activities to accompany the stories!)
The Young Oxford Book of Folk Tales
by Kevin Crossley-Holland.
Ideas for sharing multicultural tales:
I am definitely into transportation. I like to have kids pretend
they're on an airplane and we're going
on an adventure around the world. Take them on a quickie airplane
ride to the destination. Have kids
guess where they're going by telling them the kinds of things
you "see" out the window. IF you want
to be totally "kewl" ride on a stork's back or the old
magic carpet. We've even taken a time machine!
Once you're on a specific continent, you can take them on a train
ride to their next destination on the
continent. It provides a twist in between sharing stories.
Along the same lines, try a canoe ride or tubing down a major
waterway to get to your next destination.
(Be sure to know the name of the waterway for the country you're
traveling through.) I like having
stories be a part of a larger story. Have a theme for why you're
traveling around the world. This
summer our theme is "Footloose in Louisiana Libraries."
So I called my program "The Great
Walkabout Storytelling Tour"! We'll be traveling from continent
to continent in search of the "golden
feet." At the end of each story, I've included a mention
of the golden feet always just ahead of us and
with enough excitement for children to understand it's time to
leave that story and follow the golden
feet to our next adventure. I came up with this idea in part because
I found some golden feet pins (at
the dollar store, folks--wasn't looking, just found them!) to
give to the librarians. I will present the
pins during my visit at the program's conclusion. The golden feet
will be pinned on the librarian--
ta-dum (drum roll, please) because the feet will never run out
of adventures in a place like this! I am
having stickers of golden feet made for the children to take with
them. I will probably be using the
transportation ideas from the previous paragraph in this program.
11) From Europe:
Three Fools, Italian folktales, Danny Kaye's Folktales from around
the World, The Lady of the Sea,
Brittany coastline, British folktale, Cricket Magazine, 90's?
Bridge of San Martin (may be too old for
littles) Spanish Folktale, Richard Marsh Tarpeia, Roman folktale,
Sara Cone Bryant's 1905 How to
Tell Stories Slops, a tale from Wales, Margaret Read MacDonald's
Peace Tales.
From North America:
How Possum lost the Hair on His Tail, Native American, several
tribes
How Bear Got a Stumpy Tail, Native American, several tribes, Bear
Stories
Why Fox has a white tip on His Tail, Navajo folktale, Animal Stories
Why Turtle's Back is Cracked - Native American, also told as African
folktale
Baby Rattlesnake, Lynn Moroney, Chicksaw folktale, book of same
name
Mule Eggs, Appalachian folktale, my version adapted from Ray Hicks,
NSN Fest '99
Molly Pitcher, historical folktale time of Revolutionary War (more
for 10's than littles)
Why Egret has a Long Neck, Cajun/Southern folktale
Why Cardinal is Red, Cherokee folktale, Pleasant DeSpain, Eleven
Nature Tales
The Suncatcher, Algonquin folktale, Pleasant DeSpain, Eleven Nature
Tales
From South America:
The Emerald Lizard, Guatamalan folktale,Pleasant DeSpain, from
book same name
Senorita and the Puma, Argentenian folktale, Pleasant DeSpain,
from Emerald Lizard
Tia Miseria, Puerto Rican folktale, internet bare bones adaptation
From Russia:
It Could Always be Worse, Russian/Jewish folktale, from book of
same name
Very Important Field Mouse, Russian folktale, Teeny Tiny Folktales
From Asia:
Brave Little Parrot, Indian folktale, Rafe Martin's Best Loved
Tales
Friendship Orchard, Central Asian Folktale, Pleasant DeSpain,
Eleven Nature Tales
Sun Legend, Vietnamese folktale, Lyn Vuong, Sky Legends of Vietnam
Lord Bag of Rice, Japanese folktale,
The Magic Pomegranet, Turkish folktale
Holding Up the Sky (very short) Chinese folktale, M. R. MacDonald,
Peace Tales
From Africa:
Why Spiders have Small Waists
Monkey's Heart, Swahili folktale, Nick Greaves, When Lion Could
Fly
All Things are Connected, Zaire folktale, Pleasant DeSpain, Eleven
Nature Tales
Strength, Limba folktale, Margaret Read MacDonald, Peace Tales
The Lion's Whisker, Somalian Folktale from Ethiopia, M. R. McDonald,
Peace Tales
These are a few I highly recommend. Some of my favorite stories
from around the world:
Africa-Check out these books
Songs and Stories from Uganda by
W. Moses Serwadda and Hewitt Pantaleoni! He includes actual
music
and a pronunciation key in the front. I don't particularly appreciate
his story endings, so I have
devised my own. I also change the names of the characters to make
them more accessible to students.
For example, "Nsangi" became "Ewanna and the Gorilla"
The melodies and words are easy to pick
up, but you have to practice them a lot to become proficient with
them. Also I don't use all of the words
when sharing the song. I keep it very simple so audiences can
help to sing the English words rather
than the Ugandan words. I also tie the stories in with other stories
I know from this area. There is so
much here, you'll have fun with these. Audiences love these stories!!
Hyena & the Moon Stories to Tell from Kenya by Heather
McNeil. My personal favorite is Peace &
Quiet and is a story about a vulture and a chameleon. The
story lends itself to lots of creative
storytelling techniques because of vulture's boasting and chameleon's
quiet demeanor. Audiences
love this story!!!
African Folktales by Paul Radin. ISBN # 0-8052-0732-5
Again I change the story endings. I find many of the African Tales
too violent. But if you use your
imagination, you can create quite an original collection of stories
for yourself using these stories as a
springboard to catapult your storytelling creativity.
Asian:
I really like Folk Stories of the Hmong,
People of Laos, Thailand and Vietnam ISBN # 0-87287-854-6
compiled by Norma Livo & Dia Cha. The information at the beginning
of the book is very informative
and provides background information that is useful when sharing
these
stories.
Homeless Bird & The
Shard are both award winning childrens' novels. I like
to share condensed
versions of great stories and encourage children to read the stories.
Without fail, when they learn
there is more of the story to be shared, they check the books
out. The way to share a condensed version
is to find a part of the story that is most appealing to you.
Then recreate that part of the story for
children. It's a bit more work involved, but well worth the effort!
Tales from the Roof of the World
(Folktales of Tibet) by Gioia Timpanelli.
Russian:
The Little Clay Hut is a book of
Russian Folktales about Animals. Incidentally, Scott Orson Card's
clever and intriguing book Enchantment
is set in old and modern Russia and America. You can take
this wonderful story and recreate a 15 to 20 minute micro version
of the larger tale. I love sharing the
part when the airplane is transported back to ancient Russia by
the wily Baba Yaga!
12) Some interesting information about the folklore and folk customs
of the
Orkneys.
http://www.orkney.gov.uk/heritage/folklore/folklore_html
13) The sites listed below contain: Africa, Middle East, Europe,
South America, North America, Asia
and Australia. The last two sites hold some good information/links
on countries from around the
world. I hope you will find them useful.
Folktales and Fairytales From Africa & the Middle East
http://staffweb.peoriaud.k12.az.us/Karlene_Edwards/New%20SMHS%20Webpage/Miscellaneous/Folktales/FolktalesFromAfrica.htm
Folktales and Fairytales From Around the World
http://staffweb.peoriaud.k12.az.us/Karlene_Edwards/New%20SMHS%20Webpage/Miscellaneous/Folktales/FolktalesFromEurope.htm
Folktales and Fairytales From North America
http://staffweb.peoriaud.k12.az.us/Karlene_Edwards/New%20SMHS%20Webpage/Miscellaneous/Folktales/FolktalesFromNorAmer.htm
Folktales and Fairytales From Asia & Australia
http://staffweb.peoriaud.k12.az.us/Karlene_Edwards/New%20SMHS%20Webpage/Miscellaneous/Folktales/FolktalesFromAsia.htm
Folktales and Fairytales From South America
http://staffweb.peoriaud.k12.az.us/Karlene_Edwards/New%20SMHS%20Webpage/Miscellaneous/Folktales/FolktalesFromSoAmer.htm
Sites for Teachers:
Continents/Folktales
http://www.needham.k12.ma.us/Hillside/cyberventues/continents_folktales/continents
Trip Around the World
http://www.wssu.org/NES%20library%20page/world.html
(This
web page updated 3/24/03)
