Exploring Folklore

As a young child, my favorite stories to hear were folktales and fables read aloud by my mom. Maybe it was the story or maybe just the great voices she would use, but I loved them all. As a teacher, I enjoy teaching with and reading these stories more. I am always surprised at how many students have never heard some of these stories before coming to my class so I find it important to teach. What really hooks a lot of my readers are the fractured fairy tales or “fakelore”. These put a twist on the age-old stories and it is always fun to hear a different perspective.

A new favorite fractured fairy tale is Big Bad Wolf is Good by Simon Puttock and Lynne Chapman. This story is a total twist on Little Red Riding Hood except there is no appearance of Little Red at all. In this book, the wolf just wants to make friends but no one wants to be his friend. He gets the idea to change his ways and become good by doing a noble deed. Even then, all the other animals just run away from him in fear. When something awful happens, the wolf was there to help though. A little duckling disappears and everyone thinks that the wolf has actually eaten him. I’ll let you read the story to see how it all plays out in the end. This fractured fairy tale is a wonderful example of how people are not always one way and how a character can change. It also sends a great message of friendship and helping others. I want to also note the illustrations in this text are very appealing to young children and really help bring the story to life. The illustrations make the story even easier to follow.

A fable is a story that teaches a moral lesson. These are so important for students to hear and make for great classroom discussions. In City Mouse and Country Mouse, a popular Aesop’s fable, the city mouse goes to visit the country mouse. The country mouse was so proud to show the city mouse how he lives, but the city mouse just turns up his nose. He doesn’t understand how anyone can live in such poor conditions. So, he invites him back to the city with him to show him how to live life his way. While in the city, they dined on fancy feasts but were also interrupted by many loud and sometimes scary noises. This didn’t make the country mouse feel peaceful or happy so the country mouse traveled back to live his life in the country. The overall moral of the story is that it is better to live happily with what little you have rather than live with an abundance of something but in fear for your life. Again, the illustrations here are very spot on. Each page walks you through the story so that even the youngest reader can “read” the pictures.

I believe both stories have lessons that you can learn from the characters. Children can learn the difference between good and bad through these characters and their actions. Stories like these can help make our students make the right choices in their own real-life situations. Another commonality between both texts is that both main characters are animals and there is no defined villain. Although the city mouse is considered a negative influence, he wouldn’t exactly be defined as the villain. I find this interesting because I think we are always expecting to find a big villain in these types of stories, but really just learn something from the characters and the plot.