Kurtz. Trouble

Trouble is a children's book by Jane Kurtz, with art by Durga Bernhard, published in 1997. It is not available at the Internet Archive, but there is a YouTube read-along by the author!

After two cranky posts about Benjamin Elkin's appropriation of African folktales while providing no acknowledgement of his sources, I am so pleased to write about this beautiful book which provides abundant information about how this story came to be, along with artwork that is far more culturally responsive than the art in Elkin's books. Children's book publishing has come a long way in the 30 years that separate Kurtz's book from Elkin's.

In the detailed author's note, Kurtz explains that she heard this story about the boy and his gebeta board when she was growing up in Ethiopia. She also notes that Courlander collected a version of this story in Eritrea (back in the 1940s, when it was still part of Ethiopia; see this post), so based on that, she decided to set her version of the story in Eritrea. In addition to the author's note, there is a glossary of the words used in the story that might not be familiar to Anglo readers: dik-dik, gebeta, injera, mashella, and masinko, along with the meaning of the name of her protagonist, the boy she named Tekleh.

The book has been published not just in English but also in several eastern African languages: Amharic, Tigrinya, Swahili and Oromo. How cool is that? Listen to the end of the video when the author's sister, who lives and works in eastern Africa, reads the start of the story in Amharic (with an American accent, as she freely admits!).

In Kurtz's version of the folktale, which starts out very similar to the version that Courlander heard in the 1940s but then goes in a new direction, a man makes a gebeta board for his son to try to keep him out of trouble. When Tekleh meets a camel caravan, the traders complain that there is no wood in that country to make a fire, and when Tekleh insists there is wood and shows them his gebeta board, they throw it into the fire. In compensation, they give him a knife. A hunter needs a knife to skin a dik-dik, and Tekleh trades the knife for a masinko (musical instrument). He meets some musicians on their way to a wedding feast and trades the masinko for a drum, and follows them to the wedding where he snatches some food. He then plays his drum for a farmer (the noise keeps birds and monkeys away), who rewards him with corn. Then he gives the drum to the farmer for a papaya. He meets a woman whose children are hungry and gives them the corn and the papaya. One of the children gives him a gebeta board, and when he returns home, his father says, "Did I not tell you? A gebeta board never fails to keep a young boy out of a trouble."

As you can see, this is a story of trades more than a story of compensation; in Courlander's story, and in Elkin's version also, people break or lose the object that the boy gives them, so they cannot return it to him and must give him some kind of compensation. (This compensation story is found in trickster versions also; I'll have examples of those to share later.) In Kurtz's story, however, Tekleh is very good-hearted and kind, and in the end he even gives the corn and papaya to the hungry family without even thinking of something in return... which is when, in fact, he gets back the gebeta board he lost in the fire to begin with. I've marked this as a "compensation" type of story because it starts off that way, but it really is more of a generic "trading" type of chain tale — not trading-up or trading-down because, ultimately, it is trading in a circle!

Although there is not an illustrator's note (that is my ideal: an author's note AND an illustrator's note!), the book jacket explains that Bernhard "teaches West African drum and dance. As research for this book she played the gebeta game with her children and learned to cook Eritrean food." As you can see in the YouTube video, the illustrations are absolutely lovely, far more culturally responsive than the illustrations in Elkin's book.

So, if like me, you are a collector of chain tale books and/or African folktales for children, this is a book you will want to add to your collection!

Elkin. Such Is the Way of the World

Such Is the Way of the World is a children's book by Benjamin Elkin, with art by Yoko Mitsuhashi, published in 1968. It is available at the Internet Archive.

In Elkin's story, a little boy named Desta and his pet monkey Jima are tending cattle, but a dog barks and scares the monkey away, and the cattle bolt, but all Desta wants is his monkey. The dog's owner gives him a gameboard to compensate for the lost monkey, but he keeps looking for his monkey. He finds some camel-drivers, but he stumbles on one of their saddles and drops the gameboard in the fire. As compensation, they give him a pot. He meets some warriors; one warrior takes his pot to use as a drum but when he drums on the pot, it breaks; he gives Desta ostrich feathers as compensation. A woman merchant uses the feathers as a fly whisk but the wind carries them away; she gives him a knife as compensation. A goatherd borrows the knife to dig but breaks it on a stone; he gives rope as compensation. An old man uses the rope to try to fish out his canteen from a well, but he drops the rope; he gives a spear in compensation. A hunter takes the spear to kill a lion, but the spear snaps; he gives Desta a monkey he just caught as compensation... it is Jima! But what about the cattle? He runs home to see the cattle already heading home on their own without him. The father is happy and says he is glad they gave Desta a pet monkey because "There is nothing like a nice pet to keep a boy's mind on his work."

Elkin is also the author of Why the Sun Was Late, which, like this book, is based on an African folktale and, once again, Elkin does not credit his source or indicate the cultural tradition to which it belongs. The name of the boy, Desta, suggests that this is an Amharic folktale from Ethiopia, and the gameboard looks like an Ethiopian gabata board, so presumably the source was Ethiopian... but why doesn't Elkin tell us that? 

Time for some detective work! A likely published source for an Ethiopian folktale in 1968 would be Courlander and Leslau's anthology of Ethiopian stories, The Fire on the Mountain, first published in 1950 (and then later reissued under a new title — The Fire on the Mountain, and Other Stories from Ethiopia and Eritrea — after Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia in 1991).... and sure enough, here it is: The Game Board. This version is also a circular story, starting with a father who carves a gebeta board for his son, but the son then loses it through a series of misadventures although he ultimately gets another gebeta board in the end, so when he goes home to his father, his father, not suspecting all the intervening adventures, says, "What is better than a gebeta board to keep a small boy out of trouble?" About the story, the authors provide this helpful note, so we know that it is an Eritrean story:

THE GAME BOARD: Heard by Harold Courlander in the village of Amhur, about thirty-five kilometers south of Asmara, Eritrea. Central African versions, as well as European and West Indian, exist, but the sly humor of the ending of the Ethiopian tale is a local product. Gebeta is an Ethiopian form of a kind of African checker game played on a board, or set of boards, with carved holes or pockets.

So, there we go! It looks like Elkin has kept the circular structure, but instead of focusing on the game board, he has focused on the monkey. Or maybe there is some other Ethiopian folktale out there with the pet monkey? I don't know... because Elkin chose not to tell us. In the version Courlander heard, the sequence of exchanges is game board to knife to spear to horse to ax to wood to game board, so that is not the same as in Elkin, but the father's remark at the end makes me feel like this must be based on the version Courlander heard, but freely altered by Elkin.

Still, there's no way to know for sure, so I'll be on the lookout for other versions of this story to see what I can learn.

Elkin. Why the Sun Was Late

Why the Sun Was Late is a children's book by Benjamin Elkin, with art by Jerome Snyder, published in 1966. It is available at the Internet Archive.

A fly alights on an old tree and it falls; this makes the fly proud, and he decides to push TWO boys out of another tree where they are gathering nuts. Angry, one of the boys pushes the fly away; the fly hits a branch where THREE squirrels were sitting; they fall down on FOUR snakes. They slither away into a herd of FIVE elephants. The stampeding elephants crash into a tree, knocking down a nest that contains SIX eggs. The mother bird cries, saying she will never sing again. Because she did not sing in the morning, the sun did not rise. The animals called to the Great Spirit for help, who asks the bird what's wrong; "my six eggs were broken by those five elephants," and so back on down the chain. All the fly coul say was "buzz buzz." Because the fly would not speak up and explain, the Spirit punished the fly so that he would never speak again and only "buzz." Then he makes the bird's eggs whole egg and tells her to go to her nest and sing, and back on down the chain: the elephants returned to the field, etc. 

This is obviously based on an African folktale (for another story of this type, see "Why the Bush-Fowl Calls Up the Dawn" where the god is named Obassi, the supreme deity of the Ekoi people; see also Aardema's very popular Why Mosquitoes Buzz), but the author gives no indication as to the specific source that he used or the cultural tradition to which that source belongs. It really bugs me when people do not at least acknowledge their source! I'm pretty sure that turning it into not just a chain of accidents but a chain of numbers is the author's addition (I have not seen an African chain tale that plays a number game like this), but again, I am just guessing, and I have to just guess because the author has not provided any kind of commentary on the story. Argh. 

For another unattributed African folktale by Elkin, see Such Is the Way of the World.

Ritchie. What Bear Likes Best

What Bear Likes Best is a children's book by Alison Ritchie, with art by Dubravka Kolanovic, published in 2005. It is available at the Internet Archive.

Here is a YouTube read-along:

Bear is sunning himself when a Bee lands on his nose and tells him to stop squashing the flowers, so Bear rolls down the hill; rolling is one of the things he likes best. But then he lands on Mole, so he runs away and splashes in the water; splashing is one of the things he likes best. But Heron complained, so Bear scratched against a tree; scratching is one of the things he likes best (you get the idea!). This wakes Fox, so Bear climbs the tree and swings; swinging... But this bothers Woodpecker, so Bear goes back to sun himself some more. Bee, Mole, Heron, Fox, and Woodpecker all come to see him (this is the cumulative part): you're annoying, but fun to play with, so they all go play, and playing with friends is what Bear really likes BEST.

It is a very sweet little story, and cute artwork too; the animals are very stylized.

I'm not really sure how to classify this. I suppose it has a lot in common with the chain-of-companions so, at least for now, that's what I'll label it... even if, in their first encounter, the animals all tell Bear to go away!

Carlstrom. Baby-O

Baby-O is a children's book by Nancy White Carlstrom, with art by Suçie Stevenson, published in 1994. It is available at the Internet Archive.

The story depends on a chain of sounds which are also the songs of the different family members, so that means it is a chain of sounds and a chain of people: chuka chuka go the chickens is baby's song, wusha wusha goes the washing is mama's song, tomatoma goes the toy truck is brother's song, kongada kongada goes the hoe is pappy's song, pika pika go the falling mangoes is sister's song, plesh plesh goes the basket-weaving is granny's song, dipa dipa goes the fishing net is papa's song. Then there is an accumulation of all the sounds, and that is the family's song. Next, putta putta clank clank, the family drives to the market, where we hear all the sounds again, and then again putta putta clank clank on the way back home.

The lovely story is set somewhere in the Caribbean (the description just says "West Indies"), and the setting can be seen in the beautiful artwork:

The book is accompanied by a song composed by the author, which you can find on the first page of the book; I looked for an audio recording at YouTube and could not find it. (This is not the traditional folk song / nursery rhyme What Will We Do with the Baby-O.)

Ward. There Was an Old Pirate

There Was an Old Pirate who Swallowed a Fish is a children's book by Jennifer Ward, with art by Steve Gray, published in 2014. It is available at the Internet Archive. To date, Jennifer Ward has done 6 "swallowing" books, all of which I will be profiling here at the blog eventually.

Here is a YouTube read-along:

This follows the usual formula, with a fun refrain: "Yo ho ho! Watch his belly grow!" By the time it's all over, he's swallowed a fish, a bird, a map, gold, a chest, a plank, the sail, the mast, and finally the ship, and so in the end, "There was an old pirate, a captain he be, who sank to the bottom of the deep, dark, sea!"

It's going to be fun to write up a guide to this formula because I will have probably 30 or more variations to draw on, looking at all the little twists and innovations each author brings to their version of the story.

Dickinson. The Thirteen Nights of Halloween

The Thirteen Nights of Halloween is a children's book by Rebecca Dickinson, with art by the author, published in 1996. It is available at the Internet Archive.

Here is a YouTube read-along:

As you can guess from the title, this flips the Twelve Days of Christmas to the Nights of Halloween, with the ill-omened Thirteen for the countdown number. The author sets it up with a rhyming frametale about a goblin in love who wants Halloween night to last longer so that he can work up the courage to propose. The future Mrs. Goblin then tells what "my goblin gave to me" on those thirteen nights, ending with: 

On the thirteenth night of Halloween, my goblin gave to me:
   thirteen ghosts a-booing,
      twelve vampires nibbling,
         eleven black cats hissing,
            ten skeletons rattling,
               nine bats a-flying,
                  eight werewolves howling,
                     seven lizards creeping,
                        six spiders spinning,
                           five pounds of worms,
                              four cackling witches,
                                 three jack-o-lanterns,
                                    two hairy toads,
                                       and a spooky owl in a gnarled tree.

It's a fun book, and a great model for adapting the traditional Twelve Days to other holidays, plus the frametale introducing the story of the lovers is a wonderful addition to the countdown.

Leman. Twelve Cats for Christmas

Twelve Cats for Christmas is a children's book by Martin Leman, with art by the author, published in 1982. It is available at the Internet Archive.

The author is known for his cat art, and the illustrations are the star attraction of this book, which provides a feline version of the Twelve Days of Christmas countdown. The difference is that there is just one cat each time, so the days increase in number but just one new cat per day, although that does mean, I suppose, that the recipient ended up with twelve of those black cats in a pear tree which get the story started.

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
   a dozy cat napping
      a shy cat watching
         a grey cat walking
            a naughty cat playing
               a small cat hiding
                  a seaside cat purring
                     a white cat waiting
                        a fat little tabby
                           an amber cat resting
                              a moonlit cat smiling
                                 a stripy ginger kitten
                                    and a black cat in a pear tree.

Because I happen to own a big grey cat, I picked that page for the screenshot; all the art is very lovely!

McGovern. Too Much Noise

Too Much Noise is a children's book by Ann McGovern, with art by Simms Taback, published in 1967. It is available at the Internet Archive.

Here is a YouTube read-along:

An old man lives alone in an old house where there is just too much noise: bed squeaking indoors, wind blowing the leaves outdoors, etc. etc. The old man goes to the village wise man who tells him to get a cow; he does. Now the cow moos, in addition to all the noise (it's told cumulatively). Then a donkey. A sheep. A hen. A dog. A cat. Finally, the old man gets angry; he complains to the wise man, listing all the noises. So the wise man says, Let the cow go, the donkey, etc. etc. So he lets them go (another list). Then, a list of all the noises NOT being made, and the creaking bed and squeaking floor don't sound so bad now. "How quiet my house is now!" the man says.

I first encountered this as a Nasruddin story; it clearly circulates very widely! As often, the author gives no indication of her source, which really (REALLY) bugs me; I suspect her story comes via a Jewish folktale which originated together with the Nasruddin story in the Middle East and then came to Europe, and also to India, or perhaps it originated in India (here it is told about Tenalirama). But that's just me guessing; I'm now going to be on the lookout for a Jewish version of this story. In any case, the story is very nicely told and the illustrations are delightful.

I'm classifying this as a "squeeze in one more" story although this story uses that motif for a very different purpose. Instead of hospitality, this is about squeezing in one more and then letting them all go as a way to better appreciate the available room (and/or quiet) one had to begin with.

Tompert. Just a Little Bit

Just a Little Bit is a children's book by Ann Tompert, with art by Lynn Munsinger, published in 1993. It is available at the Internet Archive.

Here is a YouTube read-along:

This is an absolutely adorable book, with a very simple plot: the elephant and the mouse want to play on the see-saw together, but of course the mouse needs help to lift the elephant up, so a huge assortment of animals piles on, trying to lift up the elephant. The story is not told cumulatively one by one, but the pictures are cumulative, of course, as you can see:

The animals are on the verge of giving up, but finally a little beetle shows up and adds the last tiny bit of weight that is needed. So, I'm calling this the "final straw" type of story, although this is a much happier outcome than the final straw that breaks the camel's back: thanks to the "little bit" that the beetle added, the animals are all able to play together on the see-saw at last. The "final straw" type of story has a lot in commong also with stories like the mitten type of story and stories about squeezing in.)

Just look how happy the elephant is when the see-saw finally goes up!

It would also be fun to make a math game: give people a long list of animals with realistic weights (I don't even know how much an elephant really weighs!) so that they can make their own combination of the animals needed to lift the elephant on the see-saw. It would be fun to have a gigantic list, so that everybody could make their own unique combinations. For a chain tale book with math games included, see Twelve Circus Rings.

Leodhas. Always Room for One More

Always Room for One More is a children's book by Sorche Nic Leodhas (LeClaire Gowans Alger), with art by Nonny Hogrogian, published in 1965; it was a Caldecott Medal winner for 1966. It is available at the Internet Archive.

Here is a YouTube read-along:

Like the Mitten story, this "room for one more" story is about squeezing into a small space: in this case, it's a Scottish couple with many children in a small house, but there's always room for one more. They are joined by a whole series of guests, and there's a folksong included in the back of the book in which the owner of the house sings to the passers-by that there's always room for one more:

Here's a YouTube with the song so you can sing along!

The story is not told cumulatively, but it would be fun if it were! Instead, all we get is a list of the people who squeeze into the house (with a glossary of the Scots words in the back):

A tinker came first, then a tailor,
And a sailor with line and lead;
A gallowglass and a fishing lass,
With a creel o' fish on her head;
A merry auld wife full o' banter,
Four peat-cutters up from the bog,
Piping Rury the Ranter,
And a shepherd laddie
Down from the brae,
With his canny wee shepherd dog.

Then, as they are dancing and having a wonderful time, the house falls apart... so the family builds an even bigger house. The father sings that "there's always room for one more," but of course there's no house big enough for all the people in the world, so another way to expand the story would be to add more people to the guests so that even the bigger house bursts too, but the father keeps singing, etc. etc.

Ruzhytsky. The Mitten

The Mitten: A Ukrainian Folktale is a children's book by Viktor Ruzhytsky, with art by Valentyna Melnychenko, published in 1986 (that's the English translation; the Ukrainian book was published in 1980). It is available at the Internet Archive.

This is one of my favorite chain-tale types, and I've found several children's books which retell this Eastern European folktale about all the forest creatures who seek shelter in a lost mitten. In this version, it is an old man who loses his mitten, and a mouse is the first creature to move in, followed by a frog. Even in the English translation, there is some fun word-play with the animal's names:

Then a frog came hopping up and asked, "Who's here?"
"I am Snap-Scrap the Mouse. And who are you?"
"I'm Plip-Plop the Frog. Let me in, please."
"All right. Hop in."
Now there were two of them in the mitten.

The story is told cumulatively, as you can see here when the boar arrives and manages to squeeze in:

"We are: Snap-Scrap the Mouse, Plip-Plop the Frog, Brisk-Frisk the Rabbit, Sweet-Cheat the Fox, and Prowl-Howl the Wolf. And who are you?"
"I'm Blunt-Grunt the Boar. Let me in."
"Oh dear! Everyone who comes up wants to get inside this mitten. But there's no more room."
"I'll manage somehow. Do let me in."
"It can't be helped. Come in."
So he also came in. Now there were six of them altogether, and they really had to crowd themselves to make room for the Boar.

Last of all comes a bear, so finally there are seven in there: mouse, frog, rabbit, fox, wolf, boar, and bear.

At that point the man comes looking for his mitten; the dog finds it first and is surprised to see that it's moving! When the dog barks, all the animals run away. 

If I were going to retell this story, I would expand on the ending. After all the build-up, animal by animal, the ending is very rushed, not mentioning the individual animals. I definitely think there should be a cumulative exit to match the cumulative entrance. Even if the text does not elaborate, just look at this gorgeous illustration of the animals exiting (the art throughout the book is wonderful):

Garriel. I Know a Shy Fellow who Swallowed a Cello

I Know a Shy Fellow who Swallowed a Cello is a children's book by Barbara Garriel, with art by John O'Brien, published in 2005. It is available at the Internet Archive.

Here is a YouTube read-along:

This is a fun variation on the famous old lady who swallowed a fly; the cello leaves quite an impression, as you can see, and the art makes an excellent and vivid addition to the story:

He then swallowed a harp to jam with the cello, then a saxophone, fiddle, cymbal, flute, kazoo, bell, and even though the bell was small, it made him belch and burp, and then out they come one by one in reverse order... the cello last of all. Very cute, and a worthy addition to the enormous number of "swallowing" chain tales; I'll have lots more to post about as this blog takes shape. This is a story that absolutely wants to be imitated!

Dodd. Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy

Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy is a children's book by Dame Lynley Stuart Dodd, with art by the author, published in 1983; it is the first in a series of books about a dog named Hairy Maclary. It is available at the Internet Archive.

Here is a YouTube read-along:

The story, told in rhyme, tells us about the companions that Hairy Mclary gathered when he went on his walk, starting with Hercules Morse, as big as a horse. The story is told cumulatively, as you can see here

As they walk along together, they encounter a cat, and they all run home back to bed. Score 1 for the cat, 0 for the dogs! Ha!

There's not much of a story here, but the rhyming is very cute, and the accumulation of the companions is fun. In the second book, Hairy Mclary has to shed his companions one one by one: Hairy Maclary's Bone.

Dodd. Hairy Maclary's Bone

Hairy Maclary's Bone is a children's book by Dame Lynley Stuart Dodd, with art by the author, published in 1984; it is the second in a series of books about a dog named Hairy Maclary. It is available at the Internet Archive.

Here is a YouTube read-along:

The story, told in rhyme, starts with Hairy Maclary receiving a nice bone from Mr. Stone, but other dogs follow him. The other dogs do not join him in a cumulative chain (that happens in the first book of the series), but he loses them one by one: Hercules Morse gets stuck under a sign, Muffin McLay gets stuck in a hedge, Bottomley Potts gets tangled in a rope, Bitzer Maloney gets stuck in some rubble, and Schnitzel von Krumm is not able to leap the stone wall... so Hairy Maclary got the bone all to himself. All these other dogs are characters from the book series, so knowing the series makes the book more fun to read. Each pair of pictures shows the other dogs going along on their way in one picture, with a follow-up picture showing the dog who gets stuck; for example:

The book itself works best for readers familiar with the series, but it also offers a possible model for storytelling, with the emphasis not on the accumulation of companions (although that could be included, and I've labeled this as an accumulation-of-companions story type), but instead on the shedding of the companions, one by one.

Gorbachev. Where is the Apple Pie?

Where is the Apple Pie? is a children's book by Valeri Gorbachev, with art by the author, published in 1999. It is available at the Internet Archive.

Here is a YouTube read-along:

Gorbachev was a popular children's book author and illustrator in the Ukraine (Soviet Union) before emigrating to the United States. He does not indicate here if this is a traditional Ukrainian folktale, or a nonsense story that he simply made up for fun.

At the start of the story, the goat goes to see the pig and says he's been to the bakery, where he bought an apple pie. Where's the pie? Robbers took it (a piratical raccoon with accomplices, as meek rabbits look on). They ran into the forest. The fire burnt down the forest. The water put the fire out (fire-fighting beavers with hoses!). The water ran into the lake. The camel drank the lake. The camel's in the desert. The desert is beyond the horizon. The horizon's covered by fog. The wind blew the fog away. The wind is blowing down Main Street (all the animals are chasing their hats!). And then it turns cumulative and circular: Main Street is where the goat bought the apple pie at the bakery. So the pig exclaims:

"Blowing right down Main Street?
Where you bought the apple pie
that the robbers took to the forest
that the fire burned down,
where the water drenched the fire,
and the lake drank the water,
and the camel drank the lake
and disappeared into the desert
just beyond the horizon
all covered with fog,
until the wind came along
blowing right past the bakery
where you bought the apple pie?
That Main Street?"

The pig then asks, "So, where is the apple pie?" And that's all: the story ends. I was hoping the wind might blow the apple pie right to them. Although, of course, the goat might just be making the whole thing up, ha ha. Was there ever really an apple pie...? 

I've labeled this as a chain of disasters, but it's not strictly that type of chain tale. In fact, as it gets more and more fantastical it seems less like a chain of disasters and more like a chain of fantasy, something like the Persian folktale, "City of Nothing-in-the-World."

There are lots of details in the illustrations that would make for good discussion and also to amplify the story in more depth. The animals are not named in the text; you have to look at the illustrations for that. The spareness of the text makes a great contrast to the elaborate and funny illustrations!

Wiesner. Happy-Go-Lucky

Happy-Go-Lucky is a children's book by William Wiesner, adapted from a traditional Norwegian folktale, with art by the author, published in 1970. It is available at the Internet Archive.

This is a version of the popular European folktale about foolish trading-down exchanges. The man is returning home after taking his cow to market to sell, but with nothing to show for it; his neighbor bets him that his wife will be mad that he left with a cow and came home with nothing. The man accepts the bet. Then, he tells his wife what happened: he mistook the day and there was no market; so, trudging home with the cow, he met a man with a donkey and, wanting to ride home, he traded the cow for the donkey, but the donkey bucked and threw him into the mud. A man passing by with a pig offered to trade the pig for the donkey. As the man is narrating this to his wife, she gets excited about each trade, only to find out that he doesn't actually have it. The pig wouldn't go, so he traded the pig for a goat. The goat bolted, dragging him along, so he traded the goat for a rooster. But he felt so weak on the way home that he stopped at a pharmacist and traded the rooster for a "restorative pill." The wife is delighted by every turn of events (just the opposite of what the neighbor predicted), so, in the end, the man wins the bet and collects 20 crowns from his neighbor as his winnings. I don't know exactly the going rate for a cow back then, but I suppose, given the "lucky fool" theme of the story, 20 crowns is probably even more than he would have gotten for the cow. (That was how sure the neighbor was that the wife would be angry!)

Even though the story is Norwegian, the title is a very nice English idiom: "happy-go-lucky" is a phrase that has been in use in English since the late 1600s. An earlier version was "happy-be-lucky."

Of course, this is one of my favorite chain tale because it comes the idea of the "(lucky) fool" with the chain of trades, but instead of trading-up, like in most African and South Asian chain trade stories, this is trading-down, which is the most common European type of chain trade tale.

The illustrations by the author are very colorful and comical with lots of detail that could be talked about or used as prompts to make the narrative more detailed. 

Bower. A Patch on the Peak of Ararat

A Patch on the Peak of Ararat is a children's book by Gary Bower, with art by Barbara Chotiner, published in 2017. It is available at the Internet Archive.

Here is a YouTube read-along:

This is the story of Noah and the Ark retold in the style of "This is the House that Jack Built." The story starts at the end and works backwards: "This is the ark that proceeded to park on a patch on the peak of Ararat." I've always been surprised at the popularity of Noah's Ark as a children's story (I guess it's because of the animals?); anyway, as usual in children's versions of the story, the apocalyptic elements are gone, and you wouldn't actually know from the story that all the rest of the humans and the animals on the earth were drowned in the flood. Here is the whole story, which is told bit by bit, cumulatively:

This is The Book of God's promise to men,
   a rainbow to say He won't do this again.
After the dove had brought Noah a twig,
   and he joyfully jumped with a jangly jig
After the water had rained with the rush
   of a deafening downpour and gurgling gush
And lifted the ark and each animal pair, the beasts
   of the field and the birds of the air,
Who went through the door up the rackety ramp,
   the animals climbed so they wouldn't get damp.
Built by three sons, hard-hammering guys,
   who worked with their sweethearts while watching the skies,
And old Mr. Noah, a virtuous man, who carefully
   followed God's carpentry plan
By building an ark that proceeded to park
  on a patch on the peak of Ararat.

It would be fun to amplify this story by developing the animal part with the names, sounds, appearance, gaits, etc. of all the animals, as the book version says only "each animal pair, the beasts of the field and the birds of the air." Although they are not named in the story, there are some pairs of animals pictured in the book, as you can see:

This book is part of Gary Bower's 4-book series on Bible stories, The Faith that God Built. I'm sure there are many other Bible stories that could be retold in this style! 

Martin. The Honey Hunters

The Honey Hunters is a children's book by Francesca Martin, with art by the author, published in 1992. It is available at the Internet Archive. 

The story is wonderful: a boy follows a honeyguide in search of honey and accumulates animal companions along way: rooster and bush-cat, antelope and leopard, zebra and lion, plus an elephant. 

There is not a cumulative style as the companions assemble, but all the elements in the chain are repeated at the end, specifically in pairs: the boy breaks the honeycomb into four parts, one part for each pair, but then the pairs start fighting. Rooster and bush-cat fight, antelope and leopard, zebra and lion, plus the elephant who takes the whole piece for himself. The boy tells everybody to stop fighting, but it's too late: now rooster is now always at odds with bush-cat, elephants at odds with humans, etc.

The artwork is one of the best features of this book; the animal drawings are beautiful and expressive, and there are also many animals depicted who are not part of the story... but they could have been, and those extra animal illustrations could be used as a prompt for young storytellers to expand on the story and extend the chain.

In a tiny note at the beginning of the book, Martin says that the story is a traditional folktale of the Ngoni people, but that is all; she does not tell readers about where the Ngoni live in Africa or about her actual source, nor does she explain just what a honeyguide bird is and does. Martin is also the author of Clever Tortoise, another book based on an African folktale that she published some years later, and in that book she does an excellent job of explaining her connection to the story, as you can see in the screenshot below; I wish she had done something similar to The Honey Hunters. In that book, she also uses Swahili names for the animals, which would have been a fine option for this book too!

Ets. Elephant in a Well

Elephant in a Well is a children's book by Marie Hall Ets, with art by the author, published in 1972. It is available at the Internet Archive.

When I Googled to see if there was a YouTube recording of this book, I did not find a recording, but I did find a true account of an elephant trapped in a well in Kerala. It is all very cute in a book, but very scary in real life!

The elephant has been playing with a clothesline, so when the other animals come and try to pull him out, there is something for them to tug on other than his trunk, thank goodness! The story is told cumulatively, very much in the style of "the big turnip," with the animals joining in one by one to help the elephant: horse, cow, goat, pig, lamb, and dog. They cannot do it. Then a mouse comes and offers to help, and they all laugh at the mouse, but when the mouse joins in the effort, they succeed! 

It's a very sweet and simple story, although the farm animal cast doesn't really match the elephant. If I were to retell the story, I would have their be either an Indian or an African elephant, and then I would choose a cast of Indian or African animals to feature in the story.

Lillie. When the Rooster Crowed

When the Rooster Crowed is a children's book by Patricia Lillie, with art by Nancy Winslow Parker, published in 1991. It is available at the Internet Archive.

Here is a YouTube read-along:

The story, such as it is, is about a farmer who wants to keep sleeping, even though his wife tells him it is time to get up. This is not told cumulatively (although it could be, and I think it would be even cuter that way!); instead, it is told with a refrain, so as each new animal makes its sound, the refrain is "the rooster crowed..." For example: When the pigs went, "Oink, Oink," the rooster crowed, "Cock-a-doodle-doo!" 

Then, there is an accumulative finale after the farmer's wife yells, "ALBERT!" That's when there is a repetition of all the sounds that came before: cow, horse, pigs, chickens, and then the farmer finally gets up and takes care of all the animals in the same order: milks the cow, feeds the horse, slops the pigs, gathers the eggs, and then sits down for breakfast. It's a fun variation on the animal-sounds tradition as in "Old MacDonald," etc.

The story could definitely use some more animals, so a fun way to work with this book would be to expand the cast of characters. The dog and the cat appear in the illustrations in the farmer's bedroom, for example, but they don't get to meow and bow-wow along with the other animals! Plus there are even more kinds of animals that you can find on a farm. On the farm where I lived in Poland we had geese and turkeys, and they make great noises! Maybe by the time ALL the animals make their noises, and after the farmer takes care of all their needs, it might even be time for lunch!

Wahl. Rosa's Parrot

Rosa's Parrot is a children's book by Jan Wahl, with art by Kim Howard, published in 1999. It is available at the Internet Archive.

Here is a YouTube read-along:

Rosa is hard of hearing and her parrot helpfully repeats what people say VERY LOUDLY for her. Rosa accumulates some companions on her way to the market (told as a cumulative chain), including a man with his dogs. At the market, the parrot (secretly, under his wing) meows like a cat, setting the dogs off in pursuit and causing havoc at the market. Rosa tells the parrot he is a bad bird and makes him sit in the corner, and then they make up in the end.

It's not much of a story, but the art is delightful. It would be fun to imagine more tricks that the parrot could play on all the people who go to the market with Rosa, not just the man with dogs.

You can read more about Jan Wahl's life and prolific career at Wikipedia; you can read his obituary (he died in 2019) at the New York Times.