Rob Cleveland

I loved this origin story just as I did as a child, though I almost forgot about it before seeing the title. The colorful illustrations and personification of the tiger made me revisit my childhood to hear it again for the first time. This is such an important story for a child to hear. It gives a very good explanation, but with the added whimsical creativity that a child would fall in love with. It also has cultural aspects of Vietnam, which is very important in an origin story as it is the show more actual origin and reason for the story being. show less

This folktale is about a little boy who dreams of having his own drum. His mother is very poor and unable to give her son what he truly wants. Though his dream seems to be unattainable, we are taken on a wild journey that eventually leads to the boy living out his dream.

This book has so many lessons to be learned by young readers. It shows the importance of never giving up, caring for others, being fair, and taking risks. The little boy, who had nothing, was always willing to help others in show more need. This book reminded me a lot of The Alchemist, in how the little boy was always giving back to others and then good things would come to him. This book preaches everything I stand for and that's if you just go out into the world and help others without expecting anything in return, you will be rewarded by the universe eventually. show less

This Vietnamese folktale about a tiger earning his stripes is an entertaining way to give children some diverse culture on the bookshelf. The moral of this story is to not be too prideful or selfish, which is important for elementary aged kids to grasp. A way to involve students could be to "give" them a stripe every time you caught them doing something nice that week. Teachers could also have kids talk about why they think this is an important lesson. I loved this story!!

We were just talking about folktales at my school library when, serendipitously, a bunch of wonderful new editions of old folktales arrived at my house.

This is a marvelous one. A king goes for a long time without taking a bath. Finally he is urged to bathe, but he is annoyed when his feet get dirty as soon as he gets out of the water. A clever man invents shoes and the problem is solved.

A perfect example of a folktale, with a problem posed, a clever person coming up with a solution, and a show more history of oral telling of the story over many years. show less