Folklore

A West African Tale 

Author: retold by Verma Aardema

Illustrated by: Leo and Diane Dillon

This Caldecott Medal beautifully illustrates the tale of why mosquitoes buzz in people's ears. This is categorized as a myth, or in a simpler form, a pourquoi because it tells the origin of a natural phenomenon. Interestingly, I learned from the text, Literature and the Child by Lee Galda, that these pourquoi stories alleviate the human fear for natural creation that is beyond what we can explain. That we are humanizing these things to make them less powerful over us. In this case, the mosquito's buzzing and the annoyance of it is explained through a chain of reactions from animals. I also find it interesting that this oral tradition was told in such a way like a story retold time and time again. Its comical to me that something we still find annoying today was explained with such exaggeration. 

Author: Sarah Pairman

Illustrated by: Gemma Page 

Paper Engineering: by Brian Bartle

This is the pop up version of the fairy tale, Jack and the Beanstalk. This is categorized as a fairy tale because there is magic. Another identifier for a fairy tale is it's moral lesson. Galda's text explains that  virtue and hard work will be rewarded and greed will be punished. Jack is win the end rewarded with a happily ever after from the money he "earns" with selling his cow. However, I find it combative with the definition that Jack is not punished for stealing the gold from the giant. His greed wins him a happy ending and a deadly ending for the giant. 

These tales are similar in that the characters in both fairy tales and myths can include nonhuman beings,  both real and/or mythical.