InterestEng.illustration
Last month, Pelagaeya translated an old Russian fairy tale for us . . . two times. It came about after Pelagaeya told her English teacher about an old tale still loved today for its cleverness. The tale was told first as, The Weather was Awful but the Princess was Wonderful—and then retold with key elements made into their opposites. (The Princess was Awful but the Weather was Wonderful.)
This month, Pelagaeya and her English teacher read Pinocchio together, after which Pelagaeya again tried to write a clever counter- part. We think she succeeded very well!
ONCE there lived a silly little boy named Ear. His friends gave him this name because he had the huge ears. And why, you ask, did he have huge ears? Because he believed anything he heard. Seriously, anything! And every time he believed some lie, his ears grew larger.
One day Ear said, “Hmmmm! I have to do something about this. My ears are getting to be too big.”
Then he had an interesting thought: “If my ears get bigger when I believe a lie, will they get smaller if I tell a lie?” But it didn't work. His ears were still big and now his nose was long! He was really sad.
But then one day he heard some quiet, beautiful music being played by some musicians far, far away in the mountains. Ear suddenly understood that his ears were the best gift he could have and that he should use them to hear only the best things. Then he became a musician, too, and filled his ears, and the ears of others, with beautiful music. After that, his ears stopped growing larger. —Pelagaeya