When Apples Grew Noses And White Horses Flew (Tales of Ti-Jean) [Hardcover]

I love folktales and am a strong believer that children should be exposed to as many as possible from as many countries and cultures as possible. These stories are a part of their heritage and in a multicultural country such as American (The Great Melting Pot) our children are more often than not products of a wide range of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

Now it has always seemed strange to me that the folk tales of the two countries that Americans are closest to, Australia and Canada both have rich traditions; oral and written, of folk lore, yet our children know less of these two countries than most. A good example of that can be found right here in this little book I am reviewing. Ask the next 100 children you meet who Ti-Jean is and if you get anything but black stares back from even one of them, you are doing much better than I have. This is a pity and sort of pathetic it would seem to me.

The author, Jan Andrews has given us three wonderful little folktales which she has written and modified from the originals. When I say "originals" I am being rather vague because the roots of all these little stories about Ti-Jean run deep and they are many. Each story you hear of this young man will be just a bit different; told differently, depending upon who is doing the telling. That is the way folktales are and that is one of the things that make them so wonderful.

The origins of Ti-Jean most certainly came from Europe; France to be precise, although there are elements in the stories that are most certainly German and English present and were introduced to this continent probably in the 1700s. These tales have been redone and now have a very strong North American flavor to them. Ti-Jean, or Petit Jean or Little John shows up in the oral tradition of the early French Canadian hunters, trappers, farmers and loggers which in-turn are closely linked to the oral traditions of the Native Americans located there such as the Ojibway and Cree.

Ti-Jean is a young man of many guises, sizes and occupations; depending on who is telling the story and under what circumstances. He is usually not the sharpest tool in the shed; a rather thick and slow thinker you might kindly say, but in his own way is a trickster (Many folk tales include the trickster element and of course the ever presence of magic). This young man, who always has wonderful manners and is loyal without really a mean bone in his body, usually finds himself in all kinds of messes, usually of his own making, and is forced to think his way out of them. There is quite often an element of pure luck involved here and there and almost always magic of some sort...either person or article.

In the three tales told in this little book we have our honest, nice and somewhat dull hero first out thinking a very greedy little princes. In the second tale Ti-Jean gets into a marble shoot contest (against his father's advice) against a very nasty little guy filled with rather evil and magical intent. Our young lad must make a very long journey filled with peril. In the third story we find the young dolt going up against a very smart young lady and we wonder if he will out-smart her, find true love and save his rather arrogant brothers.

These stories are simply told and told in the style of true folk or fairy tales. They are an absolute delight to read. The book has some very nice black and white (comical) drawings by Dusan Petricic which add greatly to the appeal of this work.

As a side note: After reading this little work to a class of children, it is a wonderful exercise for them to take the character of Ti-Jean and ask them to write their own tale. Try it...it actually works in most cases and works well. You will be amazed at what some kids come up with.

This is most certainly a book you need to add to your private or school library.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks.