Ten Small Tales retold by Celia Barker Lottridge

Lottridge, C. B. (1994). Ten small tales. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books.

Summary

Ten Small Tales is a collection of folk tales found from around the globe. Retelling them in her own interpretive way, Lottridge focuses on tales that reinforce good character traits such as the ability to work together, curiosity, and cleverness. At the end of the book, she lists where each folk tale was derived from, as well as some of the original rhymes.

Advisory Information

-Themes

a. Teamwork: In her tales entitled, “The One-Turnip Garden” and “The Great Big Enormous Rock” family and friends must work together in order to pull out the turnip and push the boulder off the cliff, respectively.

b. Cleverness: In most of the stories, the protagonist must employ ingenuity and cleverness in order to save themselves from dangerous or funny situations.

c. Trickster stories: Some of the stories employ a trickster. Different from native people indigenous to North America, these trickster stories simply portray characters using their brain to get what they want. In some cases the trickster ends up being tricked himself like in Lottridge’s telling of “The Fox and the Walking Stick.”

d. Cultural Awareness and Values: Since Lottridge did use different folk tales from around the world, these stories reinforce cultural awareness and values.

Age Recommendation:

I think that young readers will be able to understand this book; therefore, I would recommend this storybook for children aged 5-8.

Other Information

The story was illustrated by Joanne Fitzgerald.

Reaction

These stories would be great to read to a young child. They are quick and relatively easy to understand. The stories are a great introduction to other cultures and stories which were new to me.