KidLit Forum

I’ve read a few of these American fairy tales and I kind of liked them because at the end there is a moral that teaches children what is the right thing to do. The Capture of Father Time is interesting because it shows children the bad things Jim does and the wisdom of Father Time. The King of The Polar Bears shows that the strength of somebody is not in his/her appearance but in the interior of that person. Our personality is great because we believe that and because we have the courage to accept it and to be proud of it and not let anyone discourage us.
The Box of Robbers reminded me of the Pandora box. We don’t know what we could find there; therefore we should stay away from that object, but, as curiosity killed the cat, Martha decided to open the box; and what did she find out? Three Italian bandits (I must confess I was amused when I read this because I didn’t expect to find bandit-dwarves). There is a lot of humour in the dialogue between the girl and the bandits. The way they’re dressed is really expensive as They wore short jackets of red velvet braided with gold, and knee breeches of sky-blue satin with silver buttons. Over their stockings were laced wide ribbons of red and yellow and blue, while their hats had broad brims with high, peaked crowns, from which fluttered yards of bright-colored ribbons. Despite their “job” they also have manners: Permit us to introduce ourselves. We can easily see that behind the mask of beauty there is not only the inner beauty but also the evil. In this case, even though the bandits were very nice dressed they were still bandits and had evil thoughts.

From "American Fairy Tales" by Frank Lyman Baum I read "The girl who owned a bear", "The Queen of Qouk", "The wonderful pump", but the most interesting to me is the "Queen of Quok". For me, the way in which the author created the story is briliant and original. How can a ten year-old son, a heir, to marry with a sour-looking old and ugly woman,Mary Ann Brodjinsky for saving the castle. So, in fact, who should be the cruel character, the old woman (because she wanted so disperatly the crown and a young husband) or the chief counselor (who holds the auction for gaining money)? I guess the answer is simple and obvious, both of them are equaly cruel. Happily the king discovers the Slave of the Royal Bedstead, and the story changes, gets a better finality, the king is able to pay back all the money and to marry with his favored, Nyana.