Customer Reviews

The Farmer's Wife

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a new twist on the types of stories that kids love to read and hear over and over. It begins with a lady making a simple request...she just wants her apple. The chain of events that results though, teaches cause and effect in a fun way. What really makes the book a lasting treasure is the art work. We found ourselves going through the book both from front to back and back to front just exploring the colorful and playful art. I highly recommend this book for kids or even adults who like the playful prose and pictures. Two thumbs up for Mary Rose Santiago and Idries Shah. I look forward to seeing more of their works.

This book is delightful. What a great concept to introduce to young minds. Not just that if you keep at something you might persevere. But also that our ultimate success often comes by way something or someone outside ourselves - when we least expect it!

The editorial review laughably misses the rhythm and the deeper layers of this story. May I gently suggest that it was reviewed in haste?

This book is a tour de force in higher order thinking, randomness and unforeseen outcomes.

A story for children at first glance that is actually a blueprint.

Children get this story. Why can not some adults even begin to scratch the surface of what is available here?

Let your child decide! Buy this book for them, read it, ask questions as to what is occuring in the tale. Then watch and listen to your child.

You may be surprised at the insights of your youngster!

This must be a book for pre-readers because the plot's extremely simple. I got it for a 3 year old and it's perfect -- the kind of story with a repeating pattern of words that the reading adult can embellish on. It's a joy to look at, almost magical. The story is interesting too, with a subtle lesson in patience (I think) and enough whimsy to keep a tired adult awake.

Great story for children! Works on memory and on the idea of cause and effect. Also a visual delight! The illustrations were beautiful - it was fun to just look at them.

Tragedies like Columbine are a wake-up call. It's clear that we need to provide our kids ...with tools to counter the violence and knee-jerk aggression ubiquitous in popular culture. These children's stories by Idries Shah are just this kind of tool. They're not preachy. They don't offer simplistic lessons or moral platitudes. They're more like exercises for "mental muscle groups" grossly underdeveloped in this culture: A strong sense of one's own value. Empathy. Flexibility in thinking and responding. Appreciating that not everyone is the same, not every outcome is predictable. Seeing that there are more than two sides to a situation. A sense that patience and perseverance can pay off, sometimes in unexpected ways. Not demanding easy answers. A sense that things are not always as they seem, that the viewpoint of "experts" — or even the whole community — is not always right. The experience of seeing something that even adults don't see, of creating clever solutions. The sense that taking positive action is possible and rewarding—even when one has to buck the tide. That help can come from where and when we least expect it. The sense that life has interesting "loose ends" for us to reflect on. And so much more. At least one of these books should be on every child's book shelf.

What a terrible story! Beautiful illustrations? Yes. But the story is just dreadful to teach a child. In it, a lazy farmer's wife manipulates multiple characters in order to try to get what she wants, an apple. In the end, a gust of wind gets the apple out of the hole for her. So she could've instead exercised simple patience!!

A more valuable lesson is that rarely will people simply do things for you for nothing and that's their rightful choice! So use your brain and your own resources to get what you desire! For example, the farmer's wife could've used her mind to use her stick to shove it down the hole to get the apple, and not cause so much misery for all the other characters around her!! I will not read this story to my kids, unless I use it to illustrate to him that the end is not always worth the means!

And the book ends saying that everyone lived happily ever after - what! Not the fire who got drowned out, not the rope that was burnt, and not dog who got stung by the bee! How books like this win awards I will never understand!!