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If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairytales.
As said by Albert Einstein, pointing out how these kinds of books generate critical thinking and widen imagination among young ones. And I do believe what he is trying to say, or let me say, I am one of fairytale's products.
When I was 14, in my elementary years, I would always lock myself in our school library, scanning books across shelves, searching for the right book to read for the day. I was born a book lover and it made me a thief, not in an illegal way, but in the childish idea I could ever define myself. Why? Because whenever I would get locked in reading and ran out of time, I would snitch the books in my bag or little hoodie and bring them to our house to continue reading. And there was a time I wasn’t able to steal one, so I stayed awake all night thinking about how the story would go and end. Curious about what was next to the last sentence I read, I would make up stories to ease my curiosity.
Growing up, I understood how important fairytales are. Not dictionaries or academic books, but “fairytales.” Fairytales have honed my imagination of things and developed how my senses could capture what’s around me. Critical thinking is always a product of fairytales, as this kind of book presents to the readers moral dilemmas they should figure out, hence shaping the moral judgment and decision-making of kids. And speaking of morals, I bet this is the second place morality was brought to life in me since my mother was the first one to teach me morals. The ideas, wonders, and glories in a fairytale would teach you life values necessary to maintain harmony around you as well as the integrity, respect, and kindness in you as an individual. Reading fairytales has not always been a boring task for me but a lovely escape from the real world, immersing myself in the world of magic, experiencing places life couldn’t bring me to. Of course, I realized all of this as an adult, and the little me wouldn’t be able to say these things while reading his fairytales because the only thing I would think while reading was how magical it was.
So that was a short story. Was it short? I hope you did not get bored with my narrative. So why am I sharing this? Because I bought some fairytale books for my nieces, not for my kids since I don’t have one yet, to bring magic into their world and shape them as kind individuals. I will share with you the books I bought and see if you are familiar with some of these books.
I bet you know these first books I am sharing now. “The Goose That Laid Golden Eggs” and “The Ant and The Grasshopper” are both from Aesop’s Fables. If you are not familiar with Aesop’s Fables yet, these are collections of beautiful ancient Greek stories attributed to a slave named Aesop that use animals and personified objects to teach moral lessons to young readers. In short, this is a collection of moral books and is often used in education. I know the two books personally because I read them multiple times during my childhood years, especially The Ant and The Grasshopper. I guess this is one of the reasons also why I grew up with compassion and care for animals. My level of love and honor for animals is as high as my love for books, so I bet this explains it.
Do you know “Little Tadpoles Looking For Their Mother”? In the Chinese version, we have this book as “Where is Mama”—a heartwarming story about a group of tadpoles going through challenges and a long path to find their mother.
Oh, we also have a collection of Smart Kids books. I personally didn’t know about this collection, but when I saw it in the supermarket, I bought them because according to the seller, these are informative books for children aged four and beyond, which grabbed my interest since my niece is four years old. Reading these books would promote early reading for her as well as basic forms of learning. When I scanned the books, I learned they are full of fascinating facts and fun elements I will enjoy... I mean, my niece will enjoy.
These books for sure are familiar to you—the iconic and adventurous Aladdin and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland stories. Although the books might have simplified some parts of the story to make them shorter and appropriate for children’s reading, I still bought them because I know how many lessons and wonders I have learned from these stories. Self-discovery and curiosity are what make Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland a great story, while Aladdin perfectly captures the values of courage and honesty.
For just 160 pesos, these values are already in my hands to teach to my nieces, and I don’t regret it.
For the last books, we have Sharkie and Tiggy and Amazing Body. Sharkie and Tiggy is written by Liza Enriquez and illustrated by Marin Borneo. I am quite familiar with this one; I remember I have read this story but in another version. It is one of the book collections of The Best Bedtime Stories in Full Colors series. It tells the sweet story of two ocean friends, Sharkie and Tiggy, who learn the value of helping, caring, and being kind to one another. They have good illustrations in this one actually, and I am excited to read it to my nieces. Is it reasonable to be this excited more than my nieces? I really love children's books—it drives me crazy. I am still a child LOL.
The Amazing Body book is one of the “I Have Got” children’s series. I stumbled upon this story when I was in Grade 2, when our teacher taught us to appreciate and understand how wonderful our bodies are and how important it is to take care of them. It was part of our hygiene class, and I was happy our teacher was able to integrate the story into the lesson.
Those are the books I bought for my nieces, and I am excited to read them tomorrow since they are not around the house today as they visited their grandfather’s grave for the celebration of November 1 and 2. I was just kind of disappointed that I wasn’t able to spot some children’s books in Filipino fairytales and myths. Those are good books actually and more relatable because of the language used. These books I bought are mostly in English, so I will be challenged now to translate each sentence into Filipino.
Regardless, these are fairytales, and whether the language is foreign or local, they teach the same thing—moral values that shape the heart and imagination of every child who reads them.