Customer Reviews

The Month-Brothers : A Slavic Tale

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This is a delightful tale for children in early grade school. Younger children will enjoy the realistic and warm illustrations by Diane Stanley. This story tells the tale of a young girl who is forced to go out in a January storm by her stepmother to look for flowers for her stepsister. While stumbling around in the snow, she meets all twelve Month Brothers, representing all the months of the year. My 8 year old has checked this book out of the school library so many times that we are finally purchasing the book for our personal library. That is the highest recommendation any author can get, the repeated reading by a child.

The Month Brothers, A Slavic Tale by Samuel Marshak

Everyone knows that the twelve months of the year never meet but in this charming folk tale a little girl saw all twelve months at one time. Deep in the forest around a blazing fire the Months meet together as brothers in the depths of the Winter.

On a freezing January night, a wicked woman ordered her stepdaughter to go into the forest to find flowers. The poor child, bundled in her ragged clothes, sets out on her impossible quest. She is without hope knowing that she cannot return without flowers and that flowers won't bloom until March. The young girl weeps as she walks on until she comes upon a glade where twelve men stand warming themselves by a huge fire. They listen to her story, and you must read this book if you want to find out how they help her.

This children's book is based on a Soviet-era Russian play The Twelve Months by Samuel (or Samuil) Marshak. With delightful color illustrations by Diane Stanley, this book is a delight to read. A longer version of Marshak's story was released in English in 1967 by Dorothy Nathan.