Folk Literature

Folk Literature one of my absolute favorites! When a young reader myself, you would find me in a myth, fairy tale, and legends book. When I became a fourth grade teacher I was upset, most of the myths are higher leveled readings and thought I could not fully explore folk literature with my students. Could I have been further away from the truth?

For this post I read two books, adaptations really. One is on Greek Mythology, my favorite out of all mythologies. The second is on a Legend, King Arthur (have to admit that for a long time I thought his tales were true or at least I hoped they were). These two books I found in Barnes and Noble and they are from a series called Illustrated Classics. When I shared them with my students, they fell in love with them.

Myth

Illustrated Classics

Greek Myths

adapted by Saviour Pirotta

This book is full of some of the most well known Greek mythology stories. The adaptation of each myth is brief but well depicted. The art work accompanying the myth helps the reader further understand the myth. The illustrations work well with the words as they provide details that the author may have had to hide in the adaptations.

 For example: In the story of Cerberus, the Hound of Hell the author might have miss somethings if the illustrations were not provided. This story is one page long and is the last one in it's series. The overall myth is The Twelve Task of Heracles. The story is that Heracles is a mortal who is really good in battle. The gods were pleased with Heracles, all except one Hera. Hera did not like Heracles because to her, he was too arrogant in his demeanor.  In her eyes Heracles did not act as his type...a mortal. Zeus on the other hand thought of Heracles as a brave mortal. When Hera tells Zeus that Heracles is not brave but a brute for not taking precautions, Heracles undergoes 12 tasks to prove his bravery. The last task is to defeat Heidi's beast the Cerberus, a three headed dog with the tail of snake, who guards the Underworld. 

Int he adaptation, the author names the type of beast in the title, Cerberus, the Hound of Hell. For someone not familiar with the myth you will understand later, when the author describes the beast as a "three headed" beast, that it is a dog. To a fourth grader, that may not be the case though. My class in particular did not what type of animal the beast was, until they saw the picture. Hound is not a word that bilingual students, specifically, would know.

Another important detail the reader may have missed, is at the end of the story when Heracles completes the final task and presents the sleeping beast to Zeus and Hera. Zeus is clearly very proud and as Heracles is walking away,turns to Hera as if telling her "I told you so." The author simply said that Hera responded "' Brave? Well, I suppose he has survived all of the challenges,' admitted Hera." If the reader is not familiar with the story, then one can simply say, depending on how the reader reads that quote, that Hera is still not convinced. Yet, in the illustration we see her face showing sympathy towards Heracles.







This book contains yet another section that I love, the family tree. This is a visual representation of how the stories in the book relate to one another. Again, for those who may not be familiar with the myths and/or are just getting into them, this is a great tool to understand the myths

I like reading myths to my kids because they have some heroes they can relate to even if the actions are exaggerated and impossible. The lessons they learn from the heroes are morals they can take to their real everyday life. Take Heracles for example, he is an ordinary guy who is doing some extraordinary things due to his bravery. All of his accomplishments were attributed to his bravery not his strength or supernatural power. That is something my kids, who struggle a lot with language can connect with. 

Legend

Illustrated Classics

The Adventures of King Arthur and His Knights 

Thomas Malory

adapted by Anne Rooney

A legend full of action, adventure, loyalty, friendship, betrayal, love, and of course magic teaching some valuable morals where boys can easily get engaged and fall in love with reading, is the reason I bought this book. Again, the original text maybe to high or too complex for my students. That is why the Illustrated Classics adaptation is perfect!

Same as the Greek Myths book, the illustrations give insights to the readers that the text may be leaving out. This adaptation in particular kept most of the important details of Arthur and his Knights. The heroes in this legend are males, so my boys are more called to this story. The fact that the King and his Knights have to embark in a very sacred quest is very intriguing. The morals behind this story help the students understand themselves. Each Knight was selected for a particular virtue they hold. It is nice to see those virtues manifest through out their quests. The reader can see the results of the Knights decisions and relate it to real life with their friends.

In order to relate this story to them, I would relate the virtuous quest of finding the Holy Grail to taking the STAAR and how we have to go through many adventures until we can get there. I will also say that their weapon is the knowledge we are obtaining.

Another great feature this book has, is the brief paragraph about the author, Malory. This overview has sparked some interest in my student who is reading this book right now. He wants to find more information on the author because of this short biographical paragraph. 

As soon as I finished reading both of these books two boys asked to read them after me. Both boys have said that they love the books and are eager to finish the books to swap with each other and hold a book club with me on both books. One is in page 8 of his book, which means he has only read 4 pages of text and 4 of illustrations, and is already retelling me the story and how he thinks its going to go from there.
I love to see my kids excited about reading. Specially two boys that I know have struggled to get into a committed relationship with books. One is dyslexic and the other just doesn't like it.