The Three Wishes - Traditional/Folk Literature

The Three Wishes is retold by M. Jean Craig and illustrated by Yuri Salzman. One day, a poor wood cutter went into the forest to work. He was about to cut down a fairy's tree that she lived in when she asked him to stop. Since he did not cut down the tree she gave him three wishes. He ran home to tell his wife and they thought of all of things they could wish for, such as a castle, clothes, and jewelry. The wood cutter was hungry but his wife had not prepared supper yet. The wood cutter accidentally wished for a piece of sausage and it appeared. His wife got angry and yelled at him for wasting a wish. He apologized but she continued to yell so he wished for the sausage to be stuck to the end of her nose, so the sausage stuck to her nose.  The wife was even more angry so she insisted that he get it off. They tried to pull it off but it would not come off so she made her husband use the last wish to make the sausage come off her nose. They were both very disappointed that they did not have any wishes left, but they did have a large piece of sausage and so they ate it. 

This would be a good book to introduce a unit on folk literature and its elements. This story uses onomatopoeic words such as, "plop", "clatter-bump", and "clatter-bang." In the plot, the story's setting is quickly introduced and after the climax the story is quickly concluded. There are examples of motifs. There is the reoccurring pattern of the number 3 and the magical powers of the fairy. At the beginning of the story, the wood cutter kept wishing for anything he could think of, such as a cart to carry his wood and roast beef to eat. This characterizes him and shows him how careless he could be when he receives his three wishes. This book can teach the theme of being thankful for what you have. The wood cutter and his wife were being greedy with the wishes and wanting to use it for money and material things. Once they wasted their wishes, they were left with just a sausage but they were thankful for having it to eat. The illustrations help with the setting and culture that the story takes place in. This book has many elements of a folktale that we could discuss and learn examples of the vocabulary words we have learned.