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Week 11 Reading Notes: Jataka Tales Part A


  • The Monkey and the Crocodile
    • This version of the Jataka Tales is simplified and retold for children
    • the monkey and the crocodile is about a crocodile who sets out to catch a monkey because his mother wants to eat monkey heart
    • the young crocodile devises a plan to catch the monkey
    • he visits the monkey's tree and convinces the monkey to jump on his back
      • telling the monkey he will carry him across the water to an island with many ripe fruit trees
    • the crocodile dives into the water while the monkey is still on his back
      • the monkey holds on because he doesn't know what is in the water and is afraid to let go
      • when the crocodile surfaces the monkey is sputtering and asks why the crocodile took him underwater
      • the crocodile is stupid and tells monkey of his plans to drown him and feed his heart to his mother
    • the monkey outwits the crocodile by convincing him that he had left his heart on the bank high in his tree
      • the crocodile carried the monkey back to the tree and demands that he go retrieve his heart  
      • the monkey climbs high in the tree and taunts the crocodile
    • eventually, the monkey moves to a new tree farther down the river
      • this tree is across from an island with many ripe fruit trees but there is a rock in the water between the bank and the island
      • the monkey jumps from his tree to the rock and then on to the island to reach the fruit
      • the crocodile discovers this and waits one night in the dark atop the rock for the monkey to make his way back to his tree
      • but the monkey notices that the rock is taller than usual and figures out the crocodile is sitting on it
      • the monkey calls out to the rock, pretending that the rock answers him every night he tricks the crocodile into answering him
      • the crocodile says he is there to eat the monkey and the monkey, pretending to despair, tells the crocodile to open his mouth wide so he can jump in
      • the monkey knows that when the crocodile's mouth is open that wide that his eyes will be closed
      • so instead of jumping into the crocodile's mouth the monkey jumps onto the top of his head and across the water to his tree
      • the crocodile realizes that he's been outsmarted once again and says that he won't bother the monkey anymore
      • the monkey replies that he will watch for him all the same
  • Storytelling notes: I chose this one because it reads like a fable, with a lesson at the end. I like the idea of the monkey outsmarting the crocodile and telling him he will continue to watch for him after the crocodile said he would leave the monkey alone. This version was simplified for children but I am thinking of doing the opposite. I think I'll make the story a little more sophisticated by using more complex language. 
  • Bibliography: Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt, illustrated by Ellsworth Young (1912). 
(Image from Jataka Tales for Kids - The Monkey and the Crocodile)
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