Fairy Tales in Different Cultures--Snow White

This week we are going to take a break from Cinderella and introduce Snow White. Snow White is a German tale and was first published by the Grimm Brothers in 1812. The original Snow White did not involve a stepmother, but was actually her mother who became jealous of her beauty. This was changed to a stepmother in the next edition and it is believed this change happened to tone the story down for children. In the initial story the mother also took Snow White into the woods herself and abandoned her, but this was changed to a servant by the first published edition. In 1912 the dwarfs were given names for a Broadway Show and then in 1937 Disney changed their names for the film. (Source)

Margarete von Waldeck (Source)

An interesting side to this story is an article written by a German scholar, Eckhard Sande, in 1994. His article titled (translated) Snow White: Is It a Fairy Tale, stated that there are many similarities in the story of Snow White and the life of Margarete von Waldeck, a German countess who was the mistress of a Spanish prince during the 1500's. She suffered an early death that some believed could have been due to poison. Her stepmother who had sent her away and the King of Spain were not happy with their children's relationship. Whether this is the source of the story, no one knows, but it is interesting to see the similarities. (Source)

Now onto our story. For the text of this story you can click here. Now last month we had the pleasure of seeing this story performed live as a musical. Although a few of the differences from the Disney version scared Hazel, she really did enjoy seeing it. I should also add that Hazel has not seen the Disney movie. This was the first movie I saw and my mother was rather upset with my father for taking me as I had nightmares for several weeks afterwards. I believe I was five when I saw it. Having watched it as an adult, I now know why I had nightmares. There are some scenes that they did rather scary for a young child.

Ok, now onto the Brothers Grimm version. A queen sat doing her needlepoint and pricked her finger. A drop of blood fell into the falling snow out the window that was framed with ebony. She liked the color combination and made a wish to have a daughter with skin as white as the snow, lips as red as blood and hair as black as ebony. Soon she had her daughter and named her Snow White. The mother died shortly after this.

The king remarried a year later. The stepmother had a magic mirror which she stood in front of each morning asking "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who in this land is the fairest of all?"

Source

The mirror would answer, "You, my queen, are the fairest of all." This would satisfy the queen since she knew the mirror could only speak the truth. Snow White grew up and grew more beautiful every day. At age seven she was as beautiful as the light of day. One day the mirror answered that Snow White was more fair than the queen. The queen filled with jealousy. She summoned a huntsman and ordered him to take the princess to the woods and to kill her. As proof of her death, the queen demanded he bring back Snow White's lungs and liver. The huntsman obeyed, but Snow White pleaded with him for her life. He let her live thinking wild animals would kill her anyway. He killed a wild boar and brought its liver and lungs to the queen. She had the cook boil them in salt, and she ate them.

Source

The young princess was scared in the woods alone and did not know what to do. She began to run. She ran through the woods. The wild animals did not harm her. She ran as far as she could and then as evening was falling she found a small house to rest. Inside the house there was a table neatly set with seven places and seven beds neatly made. The house was clean and neat. Because she was hungry and thirsty she ate a few small bites of vegetables and bread from each plate and drank a drop of wine from each mug. Then she tried each of the seven beds. She had issues with each one--too long, too short, etc.--until the seventh one which was just right. There she fell asleep.

After dark the masters or the house came home. They were seven dwarfs. They noticed right away that someone had been eating their food and sitting in their chairs. Then the noticed their beds and the seventh reported that someone was in his. The dwarfs looked at the child and were excited to have such a beautiful visitor. They let her sleep in the bed through the night. The seventh dwarf shared beds with his brothers. Sleeping an hour in each one throughout the night.

The next morning Snow White woke up and was a bit frightened by the dwarfs, but they were very friendly with her. She told them about how her stepmother tried to kill her. They told her if she would cook, clean, sew, knit for them she could stay and have whatever she wanted. She happily agreed. When the dwarfs went to dig for gold in the mines, they warned her not to let anyone in.

Source

One morning the queen asked her mirror about who was the fairest and the mirror told her it was Snow White and told her where Snow White was. The queen dressed as an old peddler woman and went to visit Snow White. She sold a beautiful silk bodice lace to Snow White and offered to lace her up properly. Snow White thought for sure she could trust this woman and let her in. The queen pulled the lace so hard, Snow White could not breathe. That evening the dwarfs came home and found Snow White lying on the floor lifeless. They noticed the lace was too tight and loosened it. Snow White slowly began to breathe an life returned to her. When the dwarfs heard what happened, they told Snow White the peddler woman must have been the godless queen. They warned her again not to let anyone in.

Source

The queen asked the mirror and again it told her Snow White was fairer. She was angry to hear Snow White was alive still. She dressed as a different peddler woman and this time sold Snow White a hair comb. The queen put the poisoned comb barely in Snow White's hair before she fell to the ground. The dwarfs came home and found Snow White on the floor again. They examined her and found the comb. When they removed it, she came back to life.

Again the queen asked the mirror and again it replied Snow White was the fairest. The queen went into her secret room and made a poisoned, poisoned apple. She tricked Snow White into trying the apple by cutting it and sharing it with her. Only half the apple was poisoned. Snow White fell to the ground with one bite. When the dwarfs returned home they found her dead on the floor. They could not bury her in the black dirt, so they made her a glass coffin and put her on display so they could always see her beauty.

Source

Now a prince was riding through the woods and came upon the beautiful girl in the glass coffin. He tried to buy the coffin from the dwarfs, but they would not sell it. Then he asked them to give it to him since he felt he could not live without seeing Snow White each day. The dwarfs took pity on him and let him take the coffin. The prince had his servants carry the coffin on their shoulders. One of them stumbled and that dislodged the poisonous apple from Snow White's throat. Snow White soon woke up and opened the coffin. The prince asked her to come to his father's castle and marry him. Snow White did. They invited the stepmother queen. 

Source

The queen asked her mirror who the fairest was and the mirror told her the bride was far fairer than her. She did not know what to do, but decided on going to see this beauty. She recognized Snow White immediately. They brought a pair of iron shoes that had been sitting in the hot coals of the fire to the queen and forced her to dance in them until she fell down dead.

Next week I will share another version of Snow White. I hope you will join us!

Roundup of Middle Grade and Young Adult Novels

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I am on my final roundup for the holiday season! Now I am going to start with some honesty. My life has been so crazy this fall. Between teaching and having Hazel at boarding school (I'm almost always driving there on the weekends), I have not had a lot of time or energy to read, so all of these books I have not completed and really just started. I am sharing them today because I want to share them before the holidays, so you are aware of them! Today's books range from ages 8 - 18. We will go in order of the ages. The first book is Sylvia Doe and the 100-Year Flood by Robert Beatty. It is recommended for ages 8 to 12.

Easter Around the World Round-Up

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

Since Easter is almost here, I thought I would do a round-up of our Easter Around the World adding in a few more countries I hoped to share about as well. So sit back and travel the world with me. Since our first Around the World post was in South America, I thought we would start there.

• Easter in Argentina

Holy Week in Argentina is an elaborate celebration. People dress in costume and reenact Jesus' last supper, his betrayal and judgment. They carry large wooden crosses and act out the Stations of the Cross, Jesus' crucifixion and his resurrection. It can be a very emotional time. 

Chocolate Egg Source: By Diegogabriel (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

• Easter in Colombia

 Holy Week is important in Colombia or should I say Semana Santa. The celebration begins as early as Thursday through Easter or Pascua. Good Friday is the most important event in Colombia other than Christmas. It is a joyous day that includes mass in church and processions. In Mompox people dress in turquoise robes and lead others to the Immaculate Conception Church. They throw stones as the doors to gain entry. Their robes are blessed during the mass and church activities and celebrations can continue the following morning as early as four. Many of the cities have processions similar to the ones in Spain. 

Source: By Campoelias (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

• Easter in Ecuador

In Ecuador, the Easter and Holy Week celebrations are pretty much the same as many places with reenactment processions on Good Friday, masses and processions on Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. On Easter after mass families gather for a feast featuring a traditional Ecuadorian soup called fanesca. Fanesca combines the food from the lowlands and from the highlands. It includes onions, peanuts, fish, rice, squash, broad beans, lupine, corn, lentils, beans, peas and melloco. Melloco is a highland tuber. 

Fanesca Source: By Micah Yoder (Transfered from en.wikipedia.org)
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

• Easter in Guatemala
• Easter in Haiti

During Holy Week in Haiti there are rara bands who take to the streets. Rara bands are like a club. The men and women in them wear colorful clothing and play instruments including handmade ones.The instruments include drums, bamboo, graters, horns and long metal cylinders like trombones. Their music is based on four notes, but they are able to produce many different sounds. See the Youtube Video above. The Rara bands travel the streets with dancers and everyone joins in. Rara bands also play during All Saints' Week in November.

Musician playing a Bamboo horn called Vaksen
Source: By LombinodrAlfonso Lomba (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

On Easter Sunday there is a fair in a park nearby. Children can go on rides and eat fresko (similar to Italian ice or snow cones) and many other goodies.There are raffle booths where children can try to win a toy, a game or a surprise gift. There is also a magician and a sek contest. Sek is a game about keeping a metal circle balanced with a special hanger while rolling the metal circle on the ground and chasing after it. On the way home, the children get ice cream at the ice cream parlor and go home exhausted.

• Easter in Mexico

Palms for Sale Source: By Nindasofia24601 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

In Mexico we begin with Palm Sunday. In Mexico they weave the palm leaves into intricate crosses and other shapes and they are sold at the doors of churches. During Holy Week, people get together to act out events from the last days of Jesus' life. These reenactments are called passion plays. They can range from simple to intricate. Participants called Penitents inflict pain on themselves to feel some of Jesus' pain. As in many countries Good Friday is the most important and somber day of Holy Week. They have processions with statues of saints carried through the streets on shoulders of people. The women also carry flowers, incense and candles and everyone sings Easter hymns. On Holy Saturday figures of Judas are burned. Judas was the disciple who betrayed Jesus. He is often portrayed as a devil figure in Mexico, but sometimes the devil's head is replaced by a hated figure. During World War II, Adolf Hitler was often used. The figures were wrapped in firecrackers and then lighted to break up in a shower of sparks. Today they are just burned. 

Card sculpture of Judas used for the "Burning of Judas" at Easter Sunday in Mexico
Source: By Wolfgang Sauber (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

• Easter in Peru

In Peru the Easter celebrations start the Monday before Easter. In Cuzco, people carry a statue of Jesus in a long procession through the streets. The people there believe this statue saved Cuzco from being destroyed in a bad earthquake on March 31, 1650. They call the statue Our Lord of the Earthquakes.  Festivities continue throughout the week with dancing, feasting and drinking. There are many favorite snacks including besitos (little kisses a type of candy) and chicha ( a beer brewed using corn). In Ayacucho artists make images on the ground using flowers. Similar to Mexico, many Peruvian towns hang and burn images of Judas on Good Friday. Many Peruvian Catholics believe God will not see what you do between Good Friday and Easter Sunday since Jesus is dead, so it is a chance to break rules and misbehave.

Our Lord of Earthquakes Source: By LopeHope (Own work) 
[CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

• Easter in Russia and Ukraine
• Easter in France, Portugal and Spain
• Easter in Sweden
• Easter in Germany, Hungary, Norway, and Poland

 

 

•  Easter in Ethiopia
• Easter in Lebanon

Eid Il Fasih is a joyful celebration in Lebanon. All Lebanese Christians fast the 40 days of Lent or Es Soum. During this time families do not eat meat. On Palm Sunday or Sha'aneeni, the Christian children dress in their very best clothes for the Ziah, a parade around the church just before noon. The children carry candles that are decorated with flowers and olive branches. The festival ends with a feast. Holy Week passes quietly with families going to church and eating simply.  On Holy Saturday, the churches are lit with candles and the day is called Sabt innour or Sabboth of Light. It is said that many years ago lights appeared by miracle in churches throughout Lebanon. On Easter Sunday, people dress in their best clothes, the children hunt for eggs and play a game called youdakis. They have a traditional meal and eat kousa or zucchini and grape leaves stuffed with rice and meat and Tabbouleh. On Easter Monday or Ithnayn il Rahib, families tend to take trips into the country and lit loud fireworks.

 

This is the end of our Around the World exploration of Easter celebrations for this year. I hope you enjoyed it. The resources I used for this post are the following books. 

 

 

 

Also if you want to see more Easter posts check out:

•  Activities to Teach the Meaning of Easter
• The Legend of the Sand Dollar
• Sharing the Easter Story with Young Children
•  Last Supper Model
• Beaded Crosses
• Chocolate Easter Egg Wrapper Cross
• Resurrection Eggs
• Religious Easter Match Game
• My Easter Pinterest Board

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures-Vasilissa and Baba Yaga

Today we will look at a Russian version of Cinderella. I found two picture books with basically the same story and we will look at both today, but first a bit about Russia. Somehow after a week of a deep freeze in New England, Russia seems like the right country to talk about. (I literally heard a radio host mention a town in Russia for having the record for lowest temperatures. She kept checking them because it made our temperatures seem so much better.)

Skandar and the Unicorn Thief -- Middle Grades Fantasy Novel Review

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Did you go through a unicorn phase? I remember loving unicorns in middle school. In fact one of my graphic arts projects in middle school was screen printing a unicorn on a mirror. I had the mirror for a very long time and may still. I'm not sure where it is though. I remember seeing it when my parents moved during college. Unicorns have become a big thing. They are always cute and sparkly. They apparently poop rainbows now. And every animal can become a type of unicorn. I see the marketing for a caticorn or llamacorn. Have you seen it? Let's face it today's kids are going crazy for anything unicorn. Today I get to share a new middle grade fantasy novel. It is described as a book for Percy Jackson fans, and I wholeheartedly agree. The book is about a world with unicorns, but unicorns are not what we think they are. The book is Skandar and the Unicorn Thief by A.F. Steadman. It is the first book in a series that will be extremely popular!! It has an 8- to 12-year-old reading level. 

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures--Blanca Rosa and the Forty Thieves: a Chilean Snow White Tale

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, I am going to share a few of the fairy tales from Hispanic areas of the world during the month. Today we will visit Chile to hear a version of Snow White, it is called Blanca Rosa and the Forty Thieves and I found it translated in English in Folktales of Chile edited by Yolando Pino-Saavedra and translated by Rockwell Gray. This is a story I shared with Hazel and we colored a Chilean flag together, but did not do any other craft.

Source

Before we get to the story, let's look at Chile a bit. It is officially the Republic of Chile and is in South America. It is a long narrow strip between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. (For more info on life in the Andes visit my post here.) It is one of two South American countries that does not border Brazil.It also claims several islands and part of Antarctica. (Source) The country is more than 2700 miles long which is about the distance from San Francisco to New York City and its width never exceeds 150 miles wide. This makes the length more than 18 times the widest part of the country. (Source)

View Larger Map

To the north Chile is desert and to the south it is mountainous with volcanoes and lakes and twisting peninsulas. The small central part of the country is where the majority of the population and agricultural resources are. In the desert there is high amounts of copper as well as other mineral wealth. 

Coloring Page Source: World Flag Coloring Pages

Prior to the 16th century Spanish arrival, northern and central Chile were under Inca rule and southern Chile was inhabited by the independent Mapuche. In 1818, Chile gained its independence from Spain. Today Chile is one of South America's most stable and prosperous countries. (Source)

Now onto our story. I found the similarities to so many of other versions of Snow White interesting. From the title, Blanca Rosa and the Forty Thieves we see the similarity to the Egyptian version that also had forty thieves.

In this story, the mother has recently died and left her daughter, who looked just like her mother, a magic mirror in which she could still see her mother and converse with her. The daughter's name is Blanca Rosa, which means White Rose. The father remarries and the stepmother thinks she is the most beautiful woman in the world and gets upset that Blanca Rosa spends all her time talking to her mirror. She takes the mirror from her and asks the mirror who is the most beautiful woman in the world. The mirror tells her it is Blanca Rosa. The woman gets very angry and orders servants to kill Blanca Rosa. The men take Blanca Rosa away and abandon her. A little old man helps her. 

The mother asks the mirror again and learns that Blanca Rosa is alive and find the little old man. She demands he kill her and bring her Blanca Rosa's eyes and tongue. The old man has a dog with blue eyes which he kills instead and brings the dog's eyes and tongue on a silver platter to the stepmother, but also sends Blanca Rosa into the woods on her own.

Blanca Rosa has a horrible time surviving until she finds the hideout of forty thieves. She is high in a tree when they leave and she drops down and discovers all sorts of jewels, treasures and food. All she cares about is the food. She helps herself and then goes back to the tree top to sleep. The thieves arrive home and wonder who has been through their hideout. The leader has one man stay behind the next day. This man watches as this beautiful woman comes down from heaven and is sure it is the Virgin Mary as he has never seen anyone so beautiful in his life. He is sure she is there to have them repent their sins of stealing. He runs to find the others in his group. They do not believe him and the next day, the leader has five men stay behind. All five have the same story as the first and finally the leader stays behind and meets Blanca Rosa. She tries to tell them she is not the Virgin Mary, but they do not believe her and they dress her with beautiful gowns and jewels. They give her whatever she wants. 

There is a rumor in the village about a beautiful woman living with forty thieves, but the stepmother refuses to believe it. She decides to ask the mirror though her question again. Again the answer is Blanca Rosa. The stepmother hires a sorceress to kill her stepdaughter once and for all. The sorceress dresses as an old poor woman and tries to give Blanca Rosa a basket of fruit to thank her for past kindness. Blanca Rosa refuses it since the thieves give her whatever her heart contents. The old woman asks to at least be able to touch her dress and hair. Blanca Rosa allows her and the old woman jabs her with a needle in her hair. The thieves come home to find Blanca Rosa dead or at least they thought she was. The put her in many beautiful clothes and jewels and into a casket made of silver and gold and sent it in the ocean. 

A prince who loves to fish was out fishing and sees the sparkle in the water and asks other fisherman to help him get it. He brings it home. He lives with his two old maid sisters, so he takes it directly to his own room. There he opens the casket to see Blanca Rosa, the most beautiful woman he has ever seen and she is dressed in such riches. He slowly takes off all her jewelry and clothing trying to find what could have stopped her breathing. Once she is naked he combs her hair and find the needle. He takes out the needle and immediately Blanca Rosa comes to live and is very confused waking to be naked with a strange man. She asks where her thieves are and he tries to explain what has happened. She just wants her thieves, so he sticks the needle back in and goes to think about what to do. His sisters are curious as to what he is doing in his room since he does not come out even for meals.

He wakes Blanca Rosa up again and tells her he could not find her thieves, but asks her to stay with him and marry him. He tells her that she does not have to leave her room if she does not want to. She agrees and does not leave the room. One day while the prince was out on business, the sisters break into the room to see what their brother has been up to and they find Blanca Rosa. They strip her of all her jewelry and fine clothes and throw her into the street naked. She wanders until she finds a kind cobbler who takes her in. The prince comes home to find his love gone and he goes and wanders aimlessly looking for her. He finds her and joyfully brought her back and began preparations for their wedding. He punished his sisters with a horrible death. The forty thieves came to the wedding at Blanca Rosa's instance and of course brought her many gifts. Blanca Rosa and the prince lived their lives happily together. 

As you can see there are some similarities to several versions, the fruit and the needle. Sending her in her casket to wander around aimlessly is similar to the Egyptian one, the Algerian one, and the Moroccan one. It is interesting to see how the versions are similar and how they differ.

I will be sharing this at the Multicultural Kid Blogs Hispanic Heritage Month Blog Hop and Giveaway. I hope you will join us at it as well and also visit all the great ideas linked up there! Remember each post shared is an entry for the amazing prizes and for those who do not have something to share, there is another way to enter!

Multicultural Children's Book Day -- Link up!

Welcome to our 4th Multicultural Children's Book Day! Here's how to celebrate:

1. Link up your diversity book reviews
2. Win diversity book bundles at our Twitter Party tonight! We're giving away 100+ children's books from 9pm to 10pm EST. RSVP here. Use hashtag: #ReadYourWorld.
3. Get your a copy of Read Your World: A Guide to Multicultural Children's Books for Parents and Educators. It's FREE today through January 31st!

Fun Facts about Lollipops with Craft and Recipe Round-Up --National Lollipop Day

I know it is Monday and I usually do my Black Lives Matter post, but today has been a bit crazy and I want to dedicate the time to make it a good post, so I will share it tomorrow. Since today is National Lollipop Day, I thought I would do a quick post sharing some fun facts about lollipops with a quick round-up of crafts, activities and recipes. 

Halloween

Congratulations to Andrea F. for winning the ebook of Christmas Crafts for Kids and a belated congratulations to Brenda W. for winning The ABC's of Australian Animals yoga book!

I have never really liked the scary parts of Halloween. I don't like where Halloween has gone and how over the top it is. I do remember loving dressing up and trick-or-treating as a child, so I wanted Hazel to have that experience without all the drama and commercialism. For her first Halloween I was excited to dress her up and take her to some family and friends' houses. Now of course she is excited to dress up and go trick-or-treating. I have made her costumes except for the first year where I found an adorable one at a consignment shop.

I chose the duck and lion costumes. She wanted to be the dish and spoon with me since she use to take my hand and tell me to run so we could be the dish and spoon from Hey Diddle, Diddle. Last year she wanted to be Rapunzel and this year she wants to be Cinderella. I finally finished her dress. I still need to put the elastics in her lower sleeves/gloves, but I need her here to measure her arms to do that. Here is the dress.

I bought her a Cinderella wig to go with the costume. I will add a picture to this post once she is dressed up for trick-or-treating. 

She picked the darker blue for her gown instead of the Disney light blue. I should add she has two light blue dress up dresses to be Cinderella, but will not leave either one for any length of time since the cheap fabrics bother her skin. This is why I make so many of her costumes. 

Now Hazel is easily scared so Halloween is not a time we pull out the scary and gory decorations. We tend to focus on pumpkins, though we do have a large spider and web on our staircase this year and some friendly ghosts in our front entrance. I have struggled with explaining Halloween to Hazel and why so many people like to dress up scary. Last year I used the Mexican Day of the Dead to help explain it. Today I found a wonderful way to do it and to bring the religious meaning back to the holiday. Over at Catholic Icing there is a wonderful post on Explaining Halloween to Catholic Kids. I would say not being Catholic, that it could be used for any Christian children.

Then there is the issue of the candy. We try to limit Hazel's sugar input (and should really limit ours more). We have used the story of the Pumpkin Fairy to help with this. I shared our version of the story here.

This year we spent some time making the egg carton pumpkins that you have seen around on-line including some at Sharing Saturday. We took our candy corn rice krispie treats a step further and made them apple and pumpkin shape (we used cookie cutters). We decorated them this time with M&M's and Steve helped Hazel with the decorating.

The final thing I would like to share with you is a wonderful book. Now the note to parents says it is not a Halloween book, but it is about a jack-o'-lantern. The book is The Pumpkin Patch Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs. I bought a copy of this book for my church and then found a used copy at the used book store and picked one up for ourselves. The church used it for Hazel's class earlier this month and one of the crafts they made was a simple one. They took orange jack-o'-lantern goody bags and stuffed them and then added a special leaf on the tie.

The book goes through a farmer planting a pumpkin patch and then when harvest time comes choosing one special large pumpkin to carve a smiling face and leaving it on his porch for all to see. Throughout the book, there are Bible quotes to go with the story. It is really a nice book to take some of the scary away from Halloween and make you like jack-o'-lanterns more.

So that is a bit about our Halloween. How do you celebrate? We are really excited that this year it appears there will not be a Halloween storm so Steve will be home with us!

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures--Arabian Snow White

Although it has been hard to find different versions of Snow White, I found one called More Beautiful Than the Moon from Algeria. I found an English version of this story in Tales Arab Women Tell by Hasan M. El-Shamy. Now this is more of a resource book than a story book, and this story did not lend itself as well to reading to Hazel. First I will give you a small amount of information on Algeria.

From Google

Algeria is officially The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria. It is in Northern Africa. It consists of 48 provinces and 1541 communes. It is the 34th most populated country in the world. It is the tenth largest country in the world and the largest in Africa and the Mediterranean. The capital is Algiers which is also the most populated city in Algeria. 

From Google

Algeria has a long history. There were hominid remains found from 200,000 BC. For several centuries Algeria was under Roman rule. In the mid 7th century the Muslim Arabs conquered Algeria and many of the locals converted to the new faith. Algeria also has a history of pirates who attacked Christian and non-Muslim ships. Then the French took over Algeria in 1830. In 1962 Algeria gained its independence.

Algeria's economy is dependent on petroleum. They have struggled to find other forms of income. With its long history of various groups ruling it, Algeria has a variety of Ethnic groups. The major one is the Berbers. The Berbers are the indigenous ethnic group of Algeria and are believed to be the ancestral stock on which elements from the Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Turks as well as other ethnic groups have contributed to the ethnic makeup of Algeria. Berbers are divided into many groups based upon languages. (Source) Now onto our story.

The story is about a beautiful woman who was very vain. She would talk to the moon each night and ask, "Oh, moon is there someone prettier than me?" The moon would answer, "I am pretty but you are prettier than everyone." Then the woman became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter who was named Lalla Ayshah el-Khdrah. The daughter was very beautiful and grew more so every day.

The mother went to the top of her house and asked the moon her question. This time the moon answered, "I am pretty and you are pretty, but Lalla Ayshah el-Khdrah is prettier than everyone. The mother was filled with jealousy and asked the moon if she should kill her. The moon told her to wait until she was weaned from breast milk. When this happened, the mother again asked the moon her questions getting the same answer. The moon told her to wait for another milestone and this continued until Lalla Ayshah el-Khdrah knew how to cook, clean and sew and was old enough to get married and have children. The moon then told the mother to kill her or the moon would kill the mother.

The mother paid the butcher in jewelry to kill her daughter. The butcher took the jewelry but could not kill the innocent girl. He left her in the woods to let God decide what would happen to her. Then he killed an ewe and filled a flask with its blood for the mother. She drank the blood.  Meanwhile, Lalla found a cave to hide in away from all the animals. When the mother asked the moon, it replied, "I am pretty and you are pretty, but no one is prettier than you." The moon answered this way since Lalla was sleeping in the cave--underground.

When Lalla woke up, she heard seven ogres eating meat from a carcass of an animal. She remained hiding. One of the ogres said he smelled human blood. They searched but could not find anyone. When they were all asleep, Lalla snuck out for a little food and drink and then went back into her hiding space.

When the ogres awoke the brother again said he smelled human blood and noticed some of his food and drink was gone. They searched again, but could not find anyone. Then they yelled that if someone was there, they would not harm the person. When Lalla came out they were stunned by her beauty and said she was their sister. She would cook and clean for them and they would give her whatever her heart desired. She cleaned them up and discovered they became human again. They moved into the forest and she was very dear to them all. In fact they all began to fall in love with her.

Meanwhile, her mother asked the moon again her questions. She was in shock to learn Lalla was still alive.  She was so angry and jealous the mother dropped dead.

The brothers had all fell in love with Lalla and each wanted to marry her. She found a trick to not marry any of them. Then the cat and Lalla got into a fight and the cat put the fire out. She had to go to an ogress house to get a flame. The ogress gave her a flame but also ashes that dropped so she could follow the girl home. While Lalla was sleeping and the brothers were not home, the ogress went in and put seven needles into Lalla's head. The brothers returned thinking she was dead. They put her body on a horse and let it carry her through the forest. A prince was out hunting and found her. He fell in love with her, but the king insisted she must be buried. The undertaker discovered the needles and removed them and Lalla woke up, but was unable to talk. The prince insisted on marrying her. Soon Lalla became pregnant and gave birth to a son.

Years passed and the boy grew up and was playing in the garden. Some of his friends teased him about his mother having no relations and he went to his mother and cried about it. For the first time she was able to speak and told her son to tell his father that he wants to see his seven maternal uncles. This happened and Lalla, her son and soldiers and servants went to look for her brothers. She glimpsed the seven walking in sorrow and sent the soldiers to get them. She invited the brothers to dinner. At dinner her son asked her tell him a story and she told him the story of her life. Her brothers realized who she was and embraced her. Then they went to the house of the ogress and killed her. In her house they found seven maidens whom they saved and married. They all lived with the prince and Lalla.

Since I did not read the story to Hazel, I did not do any crafts for this one. Sorry!

The Wolf's Curse -- New Middle Grades Fantasy Novel -- Review & Giveaway

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am working with The Children's Book Review and HarperCollins Children's Books and will receive a small stipend for my review. All opinions are my own.

What do you believe about death? Is there an afterlife? Does death come to steal your soul? These questions are ones that may pop into your head as you read the book I'm sharing today. The book is a new fantasy novel recommended for ages 8 to 12. It is The Wolf's Curse by Jessica Vitalis.

The Giving Manger -- the Perfect Family Activity/Gift for Advent Bringing Christ into Your Holiday Season

 

Disclosure: I was sent this product in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

One of my goals this November is to share  amazing Christmas products, so you will have time to purchase them to enjoy during the season. Today I begin my reviews with The Giving Manger by Allison Hottinger and Lisa Kalberer.