Demi's fresh folk tales
Demi (1942- ) is the nickname that Charlotte Dumaresq Hunt's father gave her as a child because she was half the size of her sister. Demi grew up to be a prolific author, crafting more than 300 picture books so far.
Her popular output can be divided into two categories:
biographies of famous figures, many of them religious,
folktales from most Eastern countries like India, Russia, and especially China.
It's these folk tales that drew me in. We're so familiar with our Western catalog of Hansel and Gretel, Three Billy Goats Gruff, Little Red Riding Hood, and Jack and the Beanstalk that a new-to-us folktale is quite a treat. That freshness is what drew me in, but there's a real educational value here too – these offer a taste of foreign lands and cultures. Of course, it's that same originality that bears watching – these are not Christian tales.
A few of her biographies could also be worth a read, but the biggest problem with Demi is her lack of discernment. She always lauds whoever she is writing about, and since the people she covers come from a variety of religions that contradict one another, these figures can't all be good – it only takes a little logic to understand that if two people say opposite things about what most matters in life, then at least one must be wrong. But Demi celebrates Jesus and also Muhammad, Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, and Buddha. This lack of discernment means parents and Christian school librarians shouldn't buy her books en masse. And, that need for parental and Christian school librarian discernment is all the more important because of Demi's 4-8-year-old target audience, who have yet to learn much discernment themselves.
I've read 40+ of her books so far, and what follows are the 11 I can recommend, 5 more that could be good with some parental or teacher involvement, and then an overview of her many books that would be best avoided. I've also focused on her books that are the most available, so I think you should be able to find copies of most of these either at Amazon, or from your local library. They are ordered by year published.
RECOMMENDED (11)
Marie Curie
2018 / 32 pages
Marie Curie was, without a doubt, a genius, being one of just four people to win two Nobel Prizes. This is the story of her upbringing, education, and marriage to fellow scientist Pierre Curie, and how they discovered radioactivity, which was both a brilliant accomplishment and, they learned too late, a very dangerous one. While radiation can be used for good and to cure via inventions like X-ray machines, radiation can also cause sickness, especially after prolonged exposure, which is why Marie died of leukemia at age 66. Her husband also suffered ill effects from radiation, but was struck dead in the street in an accident, or he too might have died of some radiation-related illness.
Demi has a tendency to hype who she profiles, and while that hagiographic approach can be a problem (especially when she inserts legends as if they are facts), in this book it is a boon – it means that while she mentions the grim effects of radiation, she doesn't dwell on it, making this book appropriate for even small children in a way that a more detailed, and consequently more grim, book wouldn't have been.
The shady tree
2016 / 32 pages
The boy Ping (from The Empty Pot, see below) makes his return, this time as a poor boy who just wants some shade on a hot day and sits down in the shade of a tree. Rich boy Tan Tan chases Ping away, declaring that, "This is my tree! I own all of it: the trunk, the branches, the leaves, and the shade – everything." All Ping wants is the shade, so he makes an offer on it. The rich boy, thinking he is scamming Ping, accepts. But the joke is on Tan Tan, because a tree's shade moves throughout the day, and the new owner of that shade is moving with it, right into Tan Tan's house and even his bedroom! Tan Tan can't go back on his deal, and in frustration, eventually moves away... but far from any friends. So, at book's end he comes back, and Ping is very happy to share his shade. This is a fun folk tale with an understated moral (maybe, share? or, don't scam folks?). Demi first published a version of this story in 1979 under the title The Shade of the Mulberry Tree, with the principal difference being that instead of two boys, the story is about two men, and the rich man never comes back.
Florence Nightingale
2014/ 40 pages
This is an inspiring account of the life of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), the "mother" of modern nursing. A brief nod to her love for the Lord is made: "Florence was a religious person, and she felt that God wanted her to help people." Her innovations are taken for granted now, but were life-changing then – she made sure patients got good food, and were living in clean conditions. She had also traveled to different hospitals across Europe, noting their best practices. The results her approach garnered had her being consulted by the English army, the US government, and by the Queen too. As her true tale highlights, she was a hardworking, smart woman who was responsible for medical care improvements that saved countless lives.
The magic pillow
2008 / 32 pages
Ping makes another appearance, and this time he comes across a magician with a magic pillow that can grant your every wish. When poor Ping falls asleep on it, he dreams of becoming rich and powerful. But with his wealth and power comes jealousy, and people begin telling lies about him and accusing him, until he is thrown in jail. After a long time he is set free, and regains his power and wealth. But then he sees his sons and grandsons seeking power and wealth too. When they gain it, people become jealous of them too, and tell lies about them too, and get them thrown in jail too. On and on it repeats, the rise and fall of his family. Then Ping woke up. When he did, he thanked the magician and told him he was now content to live as he was, and did not need wealth or power.
The hungry coat
2004/ 40 pages
"Once upon a time in Turkey there lived a funny, little wise man named Nasrettin Hoca. He wore a huge, white turban and a worn-out coat made of patches upon patches. Riding about on his little gray donkey, he liked to help whomever he could."
Nasrettin was popular, but when he helps catch a goat and then heads to his friend's party in his patched coat – now smelling of goat – his friends won't even sit next to him. So he heads home, gets cleaned up, and puts on a new fabulous coat. When he returns to the party, he is now the guest of honor, placed right next to the host. But as the food and wine is shared, Naserttin does a strange thing. He starts to feed his coat. "Eat coat, eat," he says as he tucks lamb chops, sugar cakes, figs, and apples in his coat. When asked to explain himself he notes that he is only treating his coat as the guest of honor. It was clear, from when he was here earlier, that it was not him they liked, otherwise they would have treated him better when he first arrived. But now that he is back with a better coat, they love him, so it must be the coat that is the guest and not him. It's a clever way to call out his friends, and they take it well, praising him for his wisdom.
The donkey and the rock
1999 / 32 pages
When a wood seller's donkey knocks an oil jar off a rock, the oil salesman is distraught – how will he feed his family now? Who is at fault, and what can be done? The two men – wood seller and oil salesman – are both honest, hardworking, and good fathers and husbands, so they decide to go to the king for his judgment. He rules them both not responsible, and demands that the donkey and rock be arrested and brought to trial. That has folks wondering what's going on, so they all come to see this trial of the century. And when they arrive, the king charges them all money, because they came to see a spectacle. Then he gives the money to the oil salesman to make up for what he lost. Seems like there is a lesson here parents could share about always wanting to see the latest thing – itching eyes are not a new phenomenon.
One grain of rice: a mathematical folktale
1997 / 32 pages
Set in India, this tells a tale that begins a bit like Joseph's advice to Pharoah to store up grain. Each year the local raja takes most of the people's grain, promising to store it safely "so that in a time of famine everyone will have rice to eat and no one will go hungry." But when the famine does come, he won't release the grain, keeping it for himself in case the famine is very long. But when a peasant girl earns a reward from the raja, she asks for what seems a modest reward. She would be given a single grain of rice, but given two the next day, and continuing to double each day thereafter for thirty days. The raja agrees. For the first week it is only a paltry reward – she gets 1, then, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and finally 64 grains of rice, the last of which isn't even a handful. But by the end of two weeks, she is now getting two full bowls of rice grains. As adults may realize, by the end of the thirty days she will have all the raja's grain, as the compounding really adds up. This is, as the subtitle notes, quite the "mathematical folktale"! The one practical problem is that this book features a two-page foldout to show just how many elephants were needed to carry all the grain on the last day. And such foldouts are liable to not be refolded with due care, and can get a bit crumpled, as happened with the copy I read. But otherwise, a very good book!
Grass sandals: the travels of Basho
1997 / 32 pages
Basho was one of Japan's masters of the haiku, and this brief biography follows him on a walking tour of Japan. Each double-page spread includes a hundred or so words describing his latest stop, but also a haiku covering the same topic. The quiet nature of the story (the illustrator shares her daughter's complaint, "Mom, nothing happens in this book") means that while it would make a charming introduction to haiku poetry, it won't be enjoyed simply as a picture book.
The firebird
1994 / 32 pages
This Russian tale's title makes it seem as if it is about a bird. But none of the three main figures here can fly. The first two are an archer and his loyal talking horse, and their opponent is the tsar they serve, who won't let any good deed go unpunished. He sends the pair out on one hazardous magical mission after another, but in the end he gets his just, self-inflicted desserts, and the archer and his pony get their happily ever after.
The empty pot
1990 / 32 pages
George Bush Sr.'s wife, Barbara picked this one, when it first came out, for her Mrs. Bush's Story Time radio program. It's about a Chinese boy named Ping (who shows up in The Shady Tree too) who has the greenest of green thumbs – he can make anything grow, almost like magic. The country's aged emperor needs to pick an heir and settles on giving all the children a flower seed to grow, and tells them "Whoever can show me their best in a year's time will succeed me to the throne." Ping figures he has a great chance, but try as he might, he can't get the seed to grow. He tries everything, but.... nothing. When the year passes all he has is an empty pot, whereas all the other children have all sorts of gorgeous flowers to show the emperor. It turns out, however that the emperor cooked all the seeds, so none of them could have grown, and only Ping was honest enough to show his true best effort, so the Emperor names the boy as his successor! The moral of this story and its surprise twist (I don't think little kids will see it coming) make this quite the powerful little lesson.
Liang and the magic paintbrush
1980 / 32 pages
Liang desperately wants to learn to paint, but the local art teacher will not give lessons to someone as poor as Liang. However, as he slept "an old man appeared on a phoenix and placed a brush in Liang's hand." It was a magic brush able to turn real whatever he painted (reminiscent of Harold and the Purple Crayon). When the emperor hears of it, he demands that Liang paint a dragon. Liang paints a frog instead and is sent to prison. He makes a deal that he'll "paint whatever the emperor wished." The emperor demands Liang draw a sea, a boat, and, after getting on the boat, the emperor demands Liang draw him wind. So Liang does – lots of wind! The boat capsizes with the emperor on board. This is a "just desserts" tale, as many a folk tale is.
TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT (5)
These are not bad books so much as they have a caution or two that parents should consider.
King Midas: the golden touch
2002 / 48 pages
You likely know about the curse that came with King Midas's golden touch. He asked a Greek god for the power to turn anything he touched to gold, but then found he was going to starve to death, as even his food turned golden.
But did you hear about how he was cursed with donkey's ears? This is a longer retelling of the myth of King Midas, including this donkey bit that often doesn't make the cut. The downside is that the Greek god Silenus is depicted as covered with roses rather than clothes. You don't see anything, but some skin tone shows up through the flowers in places that should really be covered. I'm making it sound worse than it is – there are a lot of roses – but it did strike me as weird to have any skin showing through in a kids' book. The other downside is a practical one for any school library considering this book. It has a two-page foldout that is bound to get crumpled... as it was in the copy I borrowed from our public library.
The greatest treasure
1998 / 32 pages
Pang, a rich man, finds it hard to keep track of how much money he has, because whenever he is counting it, the poor man next door, Li, distracts him with his flute playing. So the rich Pang decides to give Li a generous monetary gift... but only to distract him from playing his flute.
And it works. Li is soon so busy worrying about and counting and hiding his money that he doesn't play his flute at all. Finally, his wife steps in and reminds him, "He who has heaven in his heart is never poor." Li agrees, and gives the money back, along with flutes for the whole Pang family! This warns of how money can be an obsession, and I would have rated it higher but for the title. Peace and happiness are good indeed, but children need to understand that they are not "the greatest treasure of all" any more than money is. So, this could be a good one to get out of the public library and read along with your kids.
The stonecutter
1995 / 32 pages
An envious stonecutter thinks the grass is always greener elsewhere but eventually learns contentment. How does he learn his lesson? By being granted his wishes. First, he's envious of a rich man, and wishes to be one. When that wish is granted, he becomes envious of the governor, and wishes to be one. But even when that's granted, there always seems someone stronger and greater, so on and on his wishes go. Finally, he wishes to be an enormous, immovable stone – what is stronger than that? Well, stonecutters. And so his final wish is granted and he returns to stone cutting, content in his life.
The only reason Stonecutter got bumped down here is that the wish granter is an angel, and, as opposed to genies, angels are real and don't act this way, and we shouldn't confuse kids on that point. But it could be a good read with a parent along for the ride.
Hans Christian Andersen's Thumbelina
1988 / 32 pages
With lots of text on each page, this is quite a lengthy retelling of Thumbelina, the girl who was only a thumb tall. This a more fairy than folk tale, with fairies at the start, and fairies at the end. As she does in every version, Thumbelina has quite the series of adventures, getting kidnapped by a frog, and basically imprisoned by a mole and mouse, before being freed by a swallow she'd nursed back to health. There is a happy ending, with Thumbelina finally finding the right match for her. As nice as the story is, it's also a pointless one, which is why it is in the "Take it or leave it" section.
Chen Ping and his magic axe
1987 / 32 pages
A poor Chinese boy, Chen Ping, is sent to the forest to chop wood for his master. His master is very stern, so when Ping accidentally drops his axe into the river, all he can do is sit down and cry. Fortunately, a mysterious stranger appears and dives in to retrieve Ping's axe for him. When the stranger surfaces, he asks if the beautiful silver axe he has recovered is Ping's. "No," Ping replies honestly, "that is not my axe." Next up is an even more amazing golden axe, but Ping again tells the truth that it is not his. Finally, the stranger comes up with Ping's axe and notes that for his honesty, the axe will now magically do most of the work for him.
When Ping's master hears Ping's story, he heads straight to the river and drops in an axe. Sure enough, the stranger appears and offers to retrieve it. But the master keeps saying that each axe the stranger retrieves is not splendid enough to be his. When the stranger comes up with a huge gold one, the master excitedly claims it as his own. But on his way home, in his excitement, he jumps up and down and breaks the bridge, and falls into the river, never to be seen again.
This is a classic folk tale complete with a moral to the story that honesty is good and lying is bad. I was going to place it in the recommended section, but will note a caution for it: unfamiliar folktales are both a treat (different than another retelling of Cinderella), and have a little bit of a danger in that they can confusingly sound like the miracles of the Bible. So, for example, Elisha recovered an axe too, making an axe head float (2 Kings 6:4-6), and the chariot the stranger comes riding in on could have a child thinking of the chariot Elijah rode off on (2 Kings 2:11-12). So, this is a good book, but one that'd be better with a parent or teacher reading and explaining it.
DON'T BOTHER
Demi authored 300 titles and among those are many stories lauding pagan religious figures. She doesn't pick sides, praising Florence Nightingale as a Christian heroine and then praising Muhammad and Confucius in the same manner. This has me thinking of 1 Kings 18:21 where we read about how:
"...Elijah approached all the people and said, 'How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him. But if Baal is God, follow him.' But the people did not answer a word."
Demi waffles as well, which means lots of her books are not worth bothering with.
Even her biographies of Christian figures – laudatory though they are – should sometimes be avoided because she treats as fact some legends. So, for example, in her biography of St. Nicholas (the real man who inspired the mythical Santa Claus), we learn that "on his very first day he stood up in his bath and prayed to God!" Her Mary is full of what I presume is Roman Catholic nonsense about Mary being raised in the temple from the age of 3.
As there are actually far too many bad titles to cover, I'll share just a partial list to give you a feel of what to avoid:
Confucius: great teacher of China
The legend of Lao Tzu and the Tao Te Ching
Buddha stories
Muhammad
Mother Teresa
The fantastic adventures of Krishna
The wisdom of Solomon
CONCLUSION
Demi may have quite a bundle of titles to avoid – she might have many more bad than good – but her best titles offer a new and fresh-for-us twist on folktales. That makes these recommended reads worth trying to track down. You and your kids will love them!...
