2/5 Children’s Stories

Summary:

A series of many kid stories.



Additional Comments:

- Dialogue is super stilted.

- Narrator’s performance was fine. (She read what was there. I can't fault her for stilted dialogue.)



Spoilers possible

I get that children’s stories often don’t make much sense, especially those in this style (legend/folk tale). Still, there should be some logic to them.

Disclaimer: I am NOT the right target audience for these stories. Those more versed in children’s tales likely have a more practiced sense of suspension of disbelief.



Story by Story Mini-Reviews

Why the Sea is Salty (some titles may be slightly different because I heard the audiobook, but I’ll 2.5/5 get the basic gist across). Lacked logic. So, the little mill is responsible, but if the sea captain chucked it overboard and nothing ever stopped it, then the entire sea and world would eventually be filled with salt. Also, if the brother knew of the fiasco with his own brother, you’d think he would have said something to the sea captain before letting that little mill out of his sight. And further back, if the little mill could do most anything, why were the dwarves working? Also, there should be a bigger emphasis on magic because mills grind stuff down to powder. They don’t conjure stuff.



2/5 Fox and Eagle story (definitely not the title, but I forget the title): So, the Fox is harassing the Eagle and essentially asking her to throw down her children so he’ll go away. When she drops him off on the island, he tricks the sea creatures into helping him escape. Clever of him, but that’s not exactly the moral I’d want a kid coming away with. (If you’re being a bully and somebody fights back, just trick somebody else into doing your bidding.)



2/5 Beaver and Indian story (also certainly not the title): An Indian chief visits talking beavers and falls in love with the daughter. He then proceeds to marry her. Oh, and by the way, the heavens smile down on the union and decide to turn the beaver daughter into a human woman. Not to delve into adult business, but there are certain really big issues I have with the initial idea of a man falling in love with a beaver in any story outside of shapeshifter romance – and it’s ridiculous enough there.)



3/5 The Swift Runner: A deer wins a race. A rabbit is disqualified.



3/5 Brother Rabbit: A rabbit helps and Indian find his way home.



3/5 The Bag of Winds: Eolis (sorry about spelling); sailors set the bag of winds free. Cute but nonsensical



3/5 The Fairy Tree: Somebody ate Flora’s pet fish. She prayed for the fish to come back as a tree and it did.



2.5/5 Gray Mole and the Indian

So, this Indian is taking a gray mole home, but stops for a nap and gets scorched by the sun. Mad at the sun, he decides to set a snare for the sun. The mole becomes an accomplice. Sun’s not too pleased about this and takes his wrath out on mole…so the mole goes blind. Once again, not sure I’m fully behind the morals in this story.





2/5 Boy who cried wolf.

Not sure what the official version is but it sounds pretty darn close to the original. I looked it up and it’s a public domain work, which means the author did nothing wrong, just shady.



3/5 The lion’s share

Donkey fox and lion go hunting

They kill a wolf... donkey divides the spoils evenly and gets killed. The fox chooses a different division. While not necessarily making sense the system and moral actually works here.



2.5/5 The wolves and the deer

Wolves eat deer. Okay... pretty straightforward. Bizarre.



3/5 The frog’s travels

Frogs travel from Tokyo and Keyoto. Look back and see where they came from .



3/5 The merchants caravan

Men traveling get lost... find water, get where they’re going.



2/5 The bonfire in the sea

Fish light a fire. Because it’s magic. That’s why the sea is warm.



2/5 Robinson Crusoe

Boy ran away. Ship got hit by pirates. Ended up in Brazil. Kid end up shipwrecked. Plunders the ship. Lives on the island. Dude saves Friday. Get rescued. Note: This is a public domain work, so this is legal. However, it’s still shady to republish a story abbreviation under your own name.



- If I did the math correctly, it comes to 2/5. There are 15 stories...the score came to 29.5...that divided by 15 = 2.



Conclusion:

With the amount of moral issues I had with this book, I’d personally skip it. That said, the narrator did a lovely job, and I would check out other works she’s done.



*I received a free copy from the author or narrator. I have freely chosen to review the work. All thoughts are my own.