Publisher Description

(Bilingual English-French edition) When a little boy wakes up with a dry throat, those around him run about trying to work out what caused the condition. One by one, servants, doctors, and medical students try remedies that only complicate the situation and make the condition worse, ignoring what readers will see as the obvious solution. This is one of a series of illustrated books for the young written by the Afghan philosopher and educator Idries Shah, whose collections of narratives and teaching stories have captivated the hearts and minds of people from all walks of life. It belongs to a rich storytelling tradition from Afghanistan, Central Asia and the Middle East that is more than 1,000 years old. Teaching stories are designed specifically to foster thinking skills and perception. They suggest in their structure and in the movement of their characters ways of looking at difficulties that can help solve them. This story illustrates in a very humorous way just how foolish people can be when they fail to consider a situation before springing into action.
(Édition bilingue anglais-français) Un petit garçon se réveille un matin avec la gorge sèche. Toutes les personnes de son entourage se démènent pour trouver la cause du mal dont il souffre. Les uns après les autres, serviteurs, médecins et étudiants en médecine essayent des remèdes qui ne font que compliquer les choses et aggraver le mal, laissant de côté ce que le lecteur voit comme étant la solution évidente. C'est un des titres de la collection de livres illustrés pour les jeunes écrits par le philosophe et éducateur afghan Idries Shah, dont les recueils de récits et d'histoires-enseignements ont captivé le coeur et l'esprit de lecteurs de tous horizons. Il s'inscrit dans une tradition féconde et plus que millénaire de storytelling qui a sa source en Afghanistan, en Asie centrale et au Moyen-Orient. Cette histoire illustre de façon très humoristique à quel point les gens peuvent se montrer stupides quand ils ne prennent pas la peine de réfléchir avant d'agir.

Author Biography

Idries Shah spent much of his life collecting and publishing Sufi classical narratives and teaching stories from oral and written sources in the Middle East and Central Asia. The tales he retold especially for children are published by Hoopoe Books in beautifully illustrated editions and have been widely commended - by Western educators and psychologists, the U.S. Library of Congress, National Public Radio and other media - for their unique ability to foster social-emotional development, thinking skills and perception in children and adults alike. Told for centuries, these stories express universal themes from the cultures that produced them, showing how much we have in common and can learn from each other. As noted by reviewers, such stories are more than just entertaining; familiarity with them provokes flexibility of thought, since each one contains levels of meaning that unfold in accordance with an individual's experience and understanding. Idries Shah a passé une grande partie de sa vie à rassembler des récits classiques soufis et des récits d'enseignement à partir de sources orales et écrites au Moyen-Orient et en Asie centrale et à les publier sous forme de livre. Les 11 contes qu'il a adaptés spécialement pour les enfants sont publiés par Hoopoe Books sous forme d'histoires magnifiquement illustrées, qui ont été louées par des éducateurs et des psychologues occidentaux ainsi que par la Bibliothèque du Congrès des États-Unis, National Public Radio et d'autres médias pour leur capacité unique à favoriser développement socio-émotionnel, capacités de réflexion et perception chez les enfants et les adultes. Racontées pendant des siècles, ces histoires expriment des thèmes universels et offrent une représentation positive de cultures importantes mais souvent mal comprises, montrant combien nous avons en commun et ce que nous pouvons apprendre les uns des autres. Ils reconnaissent l'individualité et l'unicité d'un enfant et encouragent un sentiment de confiance, de responsabilité et d'objectif.

Review

"Children's Favorites" Award Winner - Children's Book Council (U.S.)
"Effectively supporting author and storyteller Idries Shah's original, entertaining, and thought-provoking picture book are the charming illustrations by artist Silvara Kossem. Fun and entertaining from cover to cover, The Spoiled Boy With the Terribly Dry Throat is a unique and unreservedly recommended addition to family, daycare center, preschool, elementary school, and community library picture book collections for children ages 4-8." - Children's Bookwatch (U.S.)
"These teaching stories can be experienced on many levels. A child may simply enjoy hearing them; an adult may analyze them in a more sophisticated way. Both may eventually benefit from the lessons within." - "All Things Considered," National Public Radio (U.S.)
"They [teaching stories] suggest ways of looking at difficulties that can help children solve problems calmly while, at the same time, giving them fresh perspectives on these difficulties that help them develop their cognitive abilities" - psychologist Robert Ornstein, Ph.D., in his lecture "Teaching Stories and the Brain" given at the U.S. Library of Congress
"Through repeated readings, these stories provoke fresh insight and more flexible thought in children. Beautifully illustrated." - NEA Today: The Magazine of the National Education Association (U.S.)
"Shah's versatile and multilayered tales provoke fresh insight and more flexible thought in children." - Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature
"These stories ... are not moralistic fables or parables, which aim to indoctrinate, nor are they written only to amuse. Rather, they are carefully designed to show effective ways of defining and responding to common life experiences." - Denise Nessel, Ph.D., Senior Consultant with the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education (U.S.), writing in Library Media Connection: The Professional Magazine for School Library Media Specialists (U.S.)
"These enchanting stories Shah has collected have a richness and depth not often encountered in children's literature, and their effect on minds young and old can be almost magical." - Multicultural Perspectives: An Official Journal of the National Association for Multicultural Education (U.S.)
"In this tradition, the line between stories for children and those for adults is not as clear as it seems to be in Western cultures, and the lessons are important for all generations." - School Library Journal (U.S.)
"Our experiences show that, while reading Idries Shah's stories can help children with reading and writing, the stories can also help them transcend fixed patterns of emotion and behaviour which may be getting in the way of learning and emotional well-being too. ... We've found that this strategy can be particularly powerful, especially when change may be resistant to appeals to reason alone. By flying under the radar of emotion and analytical thinking, the patterns contained within a story can shift children's perspective, to let them 'own' the meaning for themselves." - Ezra Hewing, Head of Education at the mental-health charity Suffolk Mind in Suffolk, U.K.; and Kashfi Khan, who teaches English as an additional language at Hounslow Town Primary School in London
"... these are vibrant, engaging, universal stories...." - Multicultural Perspectives: An Official Journal of the National Association for Multicultural Education (U.S.)

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