The Moral of the Story Is . . .

"Do not moralize."
"Do not try to teach a lesson."
For years, writers for children have heard this advice. And yet, some of the popular classics for the youngest audience moralize - THE TALE OF PETER RABBIT, THE POKY LITTLE PUPPY, or THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD. Ouch! That moralizing is painfully overt.

For the last year, I've been fascinated by researching and retelling folktales. What about the morals in folktales? They can be in-your-face like that little engine chugging over the mountain, or they can be more complex. Consider two pourquoi stories with very different explanations of why bears hibernate.


The American folktale paints the bear as a mean, loud mouth bully. Sick of the bear, one fall night the animals of the forest wait for it to climb into a hollow tree stump and fall asleep. They stuff the stump's opening with tree branches and rocks to keep it dark inside and rejoice because they're rid of the bossy bear. In spring, the animals wonder if the bear is still alive. When they remove the tree branches and rocks, sunlight wakes the bear. Now it gets complicated because the bear announces his long sleep pleased him; it's the most comfortable winter he's ever had. Are we to believe him, or is he saying that, as a bully might, to save face?

So the bully bear gets months of time out for anti-social behavior, but he says he's happy. What's the underlying moral if we believe the bear? Revenge doesn't pay? And if we don't believe the bear, or leave out the bear's dialogue in the retelling, what then? Bullies get what they deserve?

The other folktale is from Lapland. In this story, a helpful bear performs a kind deed and as a reward Ukko the Thunder God grants the bear the gift of winter sleep. Bears will no longer need to worry about searching the frozen tundra for food during the long winter. This is an uncomplicated story. The kind bear is rewarded for thoughtful behavior. The underlying moral is simple. Straightforward.

I sold the retold tale from Lapland to Highlights.

But I'm still figuring out how to retell the other story. There is something super satisfying about playing a trick on a bully, but how do I deal with that bear?