STORY CUE CARD
Bibliographic
Information (best version for telling):
Wood, A.
J. The Lion and the Mouse. Brookfield, CT: The Millbrook Press, 1995.
Ethnic
Origin: Aesop fables come from ancient Greece.
Running
Time: 3 to 4 minutes.
Power
Center(s): The terror the mouse feels when he is caught by the lion and the
hopelessness the lion feels when he is caught in the net.
Characters:
Lion
Mouse
Hunters
Scenes:
1. The lion asleep in the middle of the jungle
2. The lion trapped
in a net in the jungle.
Synopsis:
The lion is asleep in the middle of the jungle and a mouse runs over his paw by
accident. The lion wakes up when he feels the mouse on his paw and threatends to eat the mouse. The mouse begs for his life,
saying that if the lion will free him the mouse will return the favor one day.
The lion laughs at the idea that the mouse will be able to do something for
him, but decides to let him go. Some time passes, and the mouse hears the lion
roaring in the jungle. The mouse goes to see what has happened and finds the
lion trapped in a net. The mouse sets to work chewing through the net and is
able to free the lion.
Audience
(why is this story appropriate for the audience? developmental
characteristics?): According to Charlotte Huck, children this age have a short
attention span so a short story with a lot of action is ideal. Erikson says
that children in this age group are developing a sense of social
responsibility. Preschoolers are being taught about helping others and this
story is a good example of helping others and getting help in return when you
least expect it.
Bibliographic
information on other versions/variants (at least two):
Dolch, E. W., Doch, M. P, and
Jackson, B. F. Aesop's Stories for Pleasure Reading. Urbana, IL:
Pleasure Reading, 1951. "The Lion and the Slave". pg. 89-91.
Leaf, M. Aesop's
Fables. New York: The Heritage Illustrated Bookshelf, 1941. "The Lion
and the Mouse", pg. 24-25.
Brief
comparison of all versions/variants in terms of language, rhythm, "tellability," "flavor," content, etc. Stress
the differences in style rather than those of content.
The Wood version, which is the one that I
chose to use, goes into a lot of detail and has some great language. The
author describes the quiet of the forest by saying that nothing could be heard
"but the butterflies that sometimes danced in the tree's cool shade."
The author also describes the lion's paw as looking to the mouse like a
"hill of golden sand." This was also the only version that tells the
story from the perspective of both the lion and the mouse. The other versions
all seemed to tell the story only from the mouse's perspective. This was also
the longest verstin that I found. Most of the others were
in compilations of Aesop's fables and they seemed to be trying to cram as many
stories in as possible and were including very short versions.
The Leaf version of the story is very short, no more than a page and a
half. The language seemed rather out dated and the version wasn't fun. There
isn't enough detail in this version to really demonstrate how the characters
feel. In this version, there was a whole group of mice who were playing around
the lion, but the mouse of the story is the only one who is caught. There is no
description of what became of the rest of the mice and the author doesn't
describe either the mouse or the lion at all. While most children would be
familiar with these two animals by the time they are this age, a description of
what set this mouse and this lion apart from all the others would have added a
lot to the story. I did find it interesting that the next story in this
collection was a continuation of the story of the Lion and the Mouse. The
second story is called "The Fatal Marriage" and in it the lion was so
grateful to the mouse that the tells the mouse he can
have anything he wants and the mouse asks the lion for his daughter's hand in
marriage. The lioness is sent to marry the mouse and she gets so excited when
she sees him that she accidentally steps on him and crushes him.
The Dolch story is a variant. I don't remember
ever having heard this story before, but what I found interesting was that I
remembered and someone else I talked to remember having heard a variant that
combined the two stories and had a mouse removing a thorn from a lion's paw. In
the slave story, the slave has run away from his master and meets a lion along
the way who has a thorn in his paw. The slave removes the thorn and the lion
run off. The slave is then captured and the king decides to put him to death by
feeding him to the lions. The slave is let loose in the arena and the lion is
released. The lion runs up to the slave and begins licking his feet. The king
upon hearing the story says that the slave should be let go because of his
bravery and the lion should be let go for not forgetting a friend. I felt this
was very unrealistic and ruined the story