Have you ever stared up at the moon and wondered what shape the dark spots on it look like? I know that these black spots are craters on the surface of the moon, but whenever I look at them I can’t help but recall all the folk tales that my great grand-mom used to tell us at dinner. It’s a famous folk tale called ”Pedarasi Peddamma”(Pronounciation - Pay-dha-raasi Pe-dha-ma) that every kid from my state in India(Andhra Pradesh)would have heard of.
The synopsis of this folk tale is - the dark spots on the moon when seen as a whole is said to be shaped like a woman (Pedarasi Peddamma) and that she gathers all the kids from her town every evening to tell them stories.
Every evening during dinner time grown-ups in my home town in India show the moon and tell stories of Pedarasi Peddamma to their kids.
I continue this tradition with my 3 year old. Every night she looks for spots on the moon before going to bed and shows us Pedarasi Peddamma. Her imagination goes wild with that simple folk tale. Sometimes she tries to guess how many kids gathered that night, other times she wonders what story Pedarasi Pedhamma is reciting to the kids etc. Seeing this encouraged me to read her some classics from India. After I finished them I started exploring folk tales from other countries.
When I shared this interest to one of my friends, she let me borrow a book she had brought from Iceland called ‘Bukolla’. It’s an amazing folk story, native to Iceland. Astra(my 3 year old) loved that book so much, she asked Santa that book for Christmas. Also, after reading it she got very curious about Iceland.
With this amazing experience of reading classic children’s books from India, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand and Kenya…I started exploring classic folk tales from countries around the world. As I explore these books I would love to share them with fellow parents of young kids. My main goal is to unleash classic books and family games from around the globe and help kids build curiosity and imagination. It also helps expand their vision and knowledge about different countries and cultures in this ever growing globalized world. To check out these books/games follow me on instagram @an.absorbent.mind. You can also find these books/games and links to where you can find them on my blog https://anabsorbentmind.wixsite.com/blog/books