Genre:  Animals / Manners / Folktale / Hungary / Magic

Year Published: 2007

Year Read:  2015

Publisher:   Albert Whitman & Company

Now, I have read many unusual and creative folktales over the years, but I have never read a folktale quite like this one! “Little Rooster’s Diamond Button” is a Hungarian folktale retold by Margaret Read MacDonald along with illustrations by Will Terry that is so bizarre yet hilarious that any child would enjoy reading this book!

The story starts off with Little Rooster finding a beautiful diamond button in the ground and he decided to give the button to his mistress. Unfortunately, the king comes along and he ends up stealing the diamond button from Little Rooster to put into his treasure chamber. But when Little Rooster went after the king and demanded that the king should give him back his diamond button, the king got extremely angry and he ordered Little Rooster to be thrown down the well! However, it turns out that Little Rooster has a magic stomach that could consume anything on command and Little Rooster ended up drinking up all the water in the well! This ended up making the king even angrier and he then ordered Little Rooster to be thrown into the fire!

Will Little Rooster’s magic stomach get him out of this situation and will he get his diamond button back?

Read this book to find out!

Margaret Read MacDonald has done it again in retelling an ancient folktale and making the story innovating for the readers! I loved the way that Margaret Read MacDonald retold this story as I found the story to be pretty hilarious and creative and I was intrigued with Little Rooster’s predicament in trying to get his diamond button back from the king. I loved the fact that this story teaches children about the consequences of being too greedy and I loved how brave and determined Little Rooster was in trying to confront the King and get his prized diamond ring back. I think it took a lot of courage from Little Rooster to confront the King about his actions and it shows children that if a great wrong has been done to you, you should try to stand up for yourself to make things right again. But probably the best part of this story was the fact that Little Rooster has a magic stomach that is able to consume anything on command! I found that to be pretty interesting for this story because even though I have read some folktales where characters are able to consume large amounts of food (The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship), I am still amazed that there is a story where a character has a magical stomach and is able to use that stomach to get themselves out of various predicaments! Will Terry’s illustrations are hilarious and brightly colored and they greatly complement the energetic mood of this story! I also loved the images of the king having big purple baggy pants as it makes him look quite silly and it shows just how silly and arrogant he really is.

Overall, “Little Rooster’s Diamond Button” is a fantastic read for children who want to read folktales from Hungary and who want a good book that would make them laugh! I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since there is nothing inappropriate in this book.

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

Genre:  Folktale / Manners / Hungary / Trickery / Animals

Year Published: 1976

Year Read:  2015

Publisher: Macmillan Publishing Company

I have read many folktales from around the world, but I rarely read folktales that came from Hungary! “Two Greedy Bears” by Mirra Ginsburg along with illustrations by Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey seems like a familiar story that I had heard of many times before, but I have never actually read the actual tale of this lesson. Well, now this is the first time I had read the original tale and I loved it!

The book starts off with two young bear cubs running outside to see the world until they stumbled upon a brook. Both of the bear cubs wanted to drink out of the brook, but when one of them replies that he is thirsty, the other one replied that he is thirstier and this leads to the two bear cubs trying to outdo each other by seeing who could drink the most water from the brook. The bear cubs drank so much water from the brook that they ended up having huge stomachaches and they had to sleep it off until the next morning. When the bear cubs felt better the next morning, they continued to explore the world until they found a large round of cheese lying on the ground. The bear cubs wanted to divide the cheese among themselves, they could not figure out a way to divide the cheese equally. So, they started to fight each other until a fox came by and wanted to help the bear cubs divide the cheese.

Will the fox help the bear cubs divide the cheese?

Read this book to find out!

I was seriously amazed at how Mirra Ginsburg made the story as simplistic as possible, while still delivering the message about how becoming greedy can come with its own consequences. Now even though I had read many folktales that dealt with the consequences of greed, this book was quite unique as it showed more about what happens if you let greed get to you, rather than outright telling the reader that greed is never a good thing. I also thought that it was quite hilarious and creative at what happens at the end of this book (I will not spoil it for anyone who has not read this book yet) as I found myself laughing at how the fox solved this dilemma between the bear cubs! Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey’s artwork were truly cute to look at as the two bear cubs had different shades of color as one was brown and the other was yellow as it helps the reader tell them apart. I also loved the fact that the bear cubs were round and fluffy as it shows how innocent they are and yet, they do not understand about greed and therefore they get themselves into trouble whenever their greed gets the best of them.

Overall, “Two Greedy Bears” is a truly fantastic book for children who wants to learn about the consequences of greed and wants to read a folktale that comes from Hungary! I would recommend this book to children ages three and up since there is nothing inappropriate in this book.

Review is also on Rabbit Ears Book Blog