About this item
Highlights
- (Bilingual English-Hungarian edition) This is the story of two brothers: one skilled in the practical arts and the other, Prince Tambal, considered by most people to be only a dreamer.
- 8-12 Years
- 11.0" x 8.5" Paperback
- 40 Pages
- Juvenile Fiction, Fairy Tales & Folklore
- Series Name: Teaching Stories
Description
About the Book
Everyone thinks Prince Tambal is only a dreamer. When a woodcarver makes a wooden horse that seems just a toy, Tambal discovers it can go wherever its rider wants. In this way, he learns many things and finds his heart's desire.
Book Synopsis
(Bilingual English-Hungarian edition) This is the story of two brothers: one skilled in the practical arts and the other, Prince Tambal, considered by most people to be only a dreamer. Their father, the king, announces a competition to produce "interesting and useful devices." The entry produced by a woodcarver appears to be only a simple wooden horse of little value, but when Tambal looks more closely, he discovers that it's able to magically travel to whatever place is in its rider's mind. With the help of this magic horse, Tambal comes to learn a great many things and, eventually, to know his heart's desire. Julie Freeman's beautiful illustrations capture the magic of this tale, with the images and text inset in rich borders of oriental patterns. The Magic Horse is one of an illustrated series of Sufi teaching stories from the Middle East and Central Asia that were collected and adapted for children by Idries Shah, and that have captivated hearts and minds for more than a thousand years. The stories are designed to help children learn to examine their assumptions and to think for themselves. In the Sufi tradition, there is a continuum between the children's story, the entertainment or folklore story and the instructional or instrumental story. A story can help children deal with difficult situations and give them something to hold on to, but it can also stimulate a deeper understanding in adults. Through the instrumental function of this rich body of material, readers of all ages can learn to develop the capacity to be more flexible and to understand many more things about themselves and about life.
(Kétnyelvű angol-magyar kiadás) Ez a mese két hercegről szól, és a sorsukról. Hosjár herceg magas rangot kap és vagyonos lesz, míg hatalmas fémhalak építését felügyeli, amelyek csodálatos feladatokat képesek elvégezni és jólétet biztosítanak országa lakosságának. Fivérét, Tambal herceget csakis egy faló érdekli, amit egy egyszerű faművestől kap. De ez a ló csodaló. Oda viszi lovasát, ha őszinte, ahová szíve igazából vágyik. Egy napon Tambal herceg eltűnik a csodalovon. Sokáig messze jár, és sok izgalmas kalandon esik át, mielőtt elnyeri szíve vágyát és visszatérhet hazájába. Ez egyike a hagyományos szúfi tanmeséknek, amelyeket az író és tanító Idries Shah gyűjtött. Ezek a mesék nemcsak szórakoztatóak, de ösztönzik a gondolkodást és az érzékelést is, gyermekekben és felnőttekben egyaránt, és segítenek abban, hogy többet értsünk meg magunkról, választásainkról, motivációinkról és az életről.
Review Quotes
"The tale of the two brothers and their journeys is illustrated with jewel-toned, delicate paintings featuring the costumes, tools, buildings, and animals of the Moslem East. ... The two brothers do not represent good and evil as happens so often in Western tales, but instead merely the choice of two different paths." - School Library Journal (U.S.)
"... beautifully illustrated by Julie Freeman, who perfectly captures the magic of this ancient Sufi folk tale." - Midwest Book Review (U.S.)
"These teaching stories can be experienced on many levels. A child may simply enjoy hearing them; an adult may analyze them in a more sophisticated way. Both may eventually benefit from the lessons within." - "All Things Considered," National Public Radio (U.S.)
"They [teaching stories] suggest ways of looking at difficulties that can help children solve problems calmly while, at the same time, giving them fresh perspectives on these difficulties that help them develop their cognitive abilities" - psychologist Robert Ornstein, Ph.D., in his lecture "Teaching Stories and the Brain" given at the U.S. Library of Congress
"Through repeated readings, these stories provoke fresh insight and more flexible thought in children. Beautifully illustrated." - NEA Today: The Magazine of the National Education Association (U.S.)
"Shah's versatile and multilayered tales provoke fresh insight and more flexible thought in children." - Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature
"These stories ... are not moralistic fables or parables, which aim to indoctrinate, nor are they written only to amuse. Rather, they are carefully designed to show effective ways of defining and responding to common life experiences." - Denise Nessel, Ph.D., Senior Consultant with the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education (U.S.), writing in Library Media Connection: The Professional Magazine for School Library Media Specialists (U.S.)
"These enchanting stories Shah has collected have a richness and depth not often encountered in children's literature, and their effect on minds young and old can be almost magical." - Multicultural Perspectives: An Official Journal of the National Association for Multicultural Education (U.S.)
"In this tradition, the line between stories for children and those for adults is not as clear as it seems to be in Western cultures, and the lessons are important for all generations." - School Library Journal (U.S.)
"Our experiences show that, while reading Idries Shah's stories can help children with reading and writing, the stories can also help them transcend fixed patterns of emotion and behaviour which may be getting in the way of learning and emotional well-being too. ... We've found that this strategy can be particularly powerful, especially when change may be resistant to appeals to reason alone. By flying under the radar of emotion and analytical thinking, the patterns contained within a story can shift children's perspective, to let them 'own' the meaning for themselves." - Ezra Hewing, Head of Education at the mental-health charity Suffolk Mind in Suffolk, U.K.; and Kashfi Khan, who teaches English as an additional language at Hounslow Town Primary School in London
"... these are vibrant, engaging, universal stories...." - Multicultural Perspectives: An Official Journal of the National Association for Multicultural Education (U.S.)