Filipino Children’s Favorite Stories retold by Liano Romulo

       and illustrated by Joanne de Leon.

Romulo, L., & N, J. (2000). Filipino children's favorite stories. Hong Kong: Periplus.

The collection of Filipino stories and myths contains some modern stories and some traditional stories.  The myths are very different from the Greek and Roman myths and are a fresh view of life’s lessons.  The surprising story “The Prince’s Bride” features a prince who is sent out into the territory to locate a bride quickly before his father dies. The youngest prince, Marco, has chosen a giant green caterpillar  for his bride.  Everyone ridicules Marco for choosing such a future wife.  The caterpillar is a magical creature who is intelligent and charming. When Marco is instructed by his fiancé Berta to step on her neck, she transforms into a beautiful, perfect woman.  The best part of the story is the description of the wedding preparations with the clothing and the horses and carriages in the wedding procession. With the magical story-line similar to “The Princess and the Frog,” the caterpillar was once a princess who was trapped by the witch’s spell, which could only be broken by the true love of a prince. The king grows to love the caterpillar princess more than the other two daughter-in-laws.

The watercolor paintings are intriguing pictures of island life with native features, straw houses with thatched roofs, and palm trees.

Another type of story in the collection is a more modern fantasy story about a giant who is mean to animals, taking butterflies and trapping them in plastic bags and cutting off lizard tails. The animals trick him into falling and hitting his head on the porcelain bathtub and drowning.   The simple last line is “At long last, the mean and terrible giant was dead.”  This story is simple and would appeal to modern-day children with its bizarre and quirky story-line.  Who ever heard of mosquitoes, lizards, snakes, and butterflies being able to kill a giant?

Activities:

1 
       1.     Have the children imagine what animals they would like to turn into on a magical day.

       2.     Ask the children to research plants, animals, and people in the Philippines and draw an island 
             and add the plants, animals, and people typical of this country.

       3      Ask the children to reflect on the morals of the stories  and human flaws which are condemned 
            in the stories.

Comprehension Questions:

    1.     In “The Magic Lake” why did the fairy refuse to give him the silver and gold ax blades?

    2.     Why was the father sorry about the way that he had treated Tonito and Lupe in “The 
          Runaways”?

    3.    How was Langit punished for telling his wife to leave?

4  4.  Are the characters in the stories punished too cruelly for their mistakes?