Stories of Italy

When we went to the library a couple of weeks ago to pick up books for our "Tour of Italy", there were two that I was absolutely certain that I wanted to look for. The first being part of The Cultures Of The World series. We always borrow books from this collection and they are super informative and really well written for children to be able to understand. 

The second, was part of another series that we have borrowed before as well. This series is what I can assume would be called the "Favorite Fairy Tales" series. We borrowed a Favorite Fairy Tales book when we learned about Scotland and we really enjoyed reading the tales that have been handed down through generations and modified as time passes. Once we had those two books, we started browsing for other books that would be fun to read and learn more about Italy and it's culture. 

I really wanted to start this book review out with some stellar review about "Favorite Fairy Tales Told In Italy" Retold by Virginia Haviland. My littles and I sat down with the book and snuggled in close to each other under a blanket (really, those moments are the best aren't they???) and opened the book. I started reading the first story and it was a variation of a Cinderella Story. I thought it was interesting because last year, I participated in a "Cinderella Around The World" book review with several other bloggers and I reviewed a Caribbean Cinderella Story. At that point we did read several of the other Cinderella stories that other bloggers reviewed, so we decided to skip to the next story. 

The next story was about a King whose three daughters went missing and as he was so tormented with worry, he asked for help finding his daughters, the reward being one of his daughters' hand in marriage. When I got to that part, my skin began to crawl and then my quick witted Eliana said, "Hey! I don't like that!" "Why not?", I asked. "I wouldn't want someone telling me who I had to marry." (Have I mentioned how much I adore this kid?) So, collectively we agreed to skip that story as well, when the third story we read started out with a man trying to find a missing woman to win the reward of her hand in marriage (yes, this is another story all together), we decided to stop reading the book. So, I apologize that I am unable to offer any real kind of review on that book, though if you're into the fairy tales where a man rescues a woman and her dad forces her to marry the hero, you should check out this book. 

After that, I was thrilled to open another book that we found while at the library, Days of The Blackbird by Tomie dePaola. This book is a fictional story based on a true tale that is told in Northern Italy. Aiden was really excited about this book, because at school a couple of years ago, his class learned about Tomie dePaola, so now whenever Aiden sees anything by him, he acts like he is his best friend. BFFs til the end my friends ;)

The tale of the blackbird is that the birds started out white, but when winter came it was so cold that they would hide in the chimneys to stay warm, thus turning black. In Tomie dePaola's story, there is a man who lives with his daughter and they enjoy sitting and listening to the bird songs. Especially that of the white songbird. When the cold weather moves in and the birds start to leave for warmer weather, the father falls very ill and the daughter begs the white bird to stay through the winter so that it may sing to her father help his health. 

This story was a delightful story and the father didn't even make the daughter marry the bird after they saved his life, so that made me even happier ;) All in all, I give this book the honor of being my favorite Italy book that we borrowed from the library. Of course, I am still very fond of the Cultures of the World series, but Days of The Blackbird is nice little story that was enjoyed by all three of us. 

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