Following the previous book Tales & Legends, we considered it important to know a little more about the traditional literature of our partner countries. So, in recent months, our friends have sent us short stories and tales representative of each country. Each class chose the tale of the country with which they exchange correspondence and began its free exploration. With the translations made for Portuguese and the illustrations, we decided to make a compilation and gather all the work in a book that, after printed, will be soon distributed by the educational community.
From Latvia, we present the tale of Spriditis, a little boy who sets out on the adventure through the dark forest, since he “dreamed of adventures in the big wide world”. As in any self-respecting fairy tale, Spriditis also learns a great lesson that we must all have present in our lives. This beautiful story was explored and illustrated by the 3rd grade students.
From Finland, we present Twelve Gifts for Santa Claus, a work of the famous writer Mauri kunnas. The little elf Willie, eager for Christmas’s arrival, decides, in the twelve days remaining, to prepare little surprises for Santa. These are twelve little adventures filled with joy and imagination, proper to the writing of Kunnas. Taking inspiration from Kunnas’s book, the illustrations were made by students of the 2nd grade.
From Italy, we present a free and very short version of the famous adventures of Pinocchio, the timeless story of the wooden puppet that turns into a real boy. It reminds us, once again, of the difference between good and evil, right and wrong, and that our actions invariably have consequences. The beautiful illustrations were made by the students of the 1st grade.
From Turkey we present a popular story of Nasreddin Hodja. In this little story, many lessons can be learned but the moral is obvious: “who wants to please everyone, in the end does not please anyone”. Illustrations were made by Pre-School students.
Finally, from Portugal, we present the short story The Prince with Donkey Ears. Also in this tale, a clear moral lesson is present in the figure of the vain Prince, in spite of his enormous ears. The illustrations of The Prince with Donkey Ears were made by the students of the 4th grade.
This is a work of the students and teachers of Marinheira school, Portugal, in which each class developed the various strands of work that surrounded each tale, from collection, adaptation, translation and illustration. It is, therefore, an unrepeatable result since it is presented the particular vision of the students who worked on each story.
This book of short stories, as a recreational or educational reading, will awaken in each of us a little of the traditional and fantastic imaginary of fairy tales, as well as let us know a little about the rich cultures of the partner countries.
With this we ended the first year of participation in the Candle Wisdom project. It has been an extremely rewarding and enriching adventure!