The Spoiled Boy with the Terribly Dry Throat - (Teaching Stories) by Idries Shah (Paperback)

About the Book

When a little boy wakes up with a dry throat, the adults around him try remedies that only complicate matters and make the condition worse, ignoring what young readers will see as the obvious solution.

Book Synopsis

When a little boy wakes up with a dry throat, those around him run about trying to work out what caused the condition. One by one, servants, doctors, and medical students try remedies that only complicate the situation and make the condition worse, ignoring what readers will see as the obvious solution. This is one of a series of illustrated books for the young written by the Afghan philosopher and educator Idries Shah, whose collections of narratives and teaching stories have captivated the hearts and minds of people from all walks of life. It belongs to a rich storytelling tradition from Afghanistan, Central Asia and the Middle East that is more than 1,000 years old. Teaching stories are designed specifically to foster thinking skills and perception. They suggest in their structure and in the movement of their characters ways of looking at difficulties that can help solve them. This story illustrates in a very humorous way just how foolish people can be when they fail to consider a situation before springing into action.

Review Quotes

2023 Children's Book Council Children's Favorites Award Winner (U.S.)

2023 Children's Book Council Teacher Favorites Award Winner (U.S.)

"Effectively supporting author and storyteller Idries Shah's original, entertaining, and thought-provoking picture book are the charming illustrations by artist Silvara Kossem. Fun and entertaining from cover to cover, The Spoiled Boy With the Terribly Dry Throat is a unique and unreservedly recommended addition to family, daycare center, preschool, elementary school, and community library picture book collections for children ages 4-8." - Children's Bookwatch (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.)

"Shah has collected hundreds of Sufi tales, many of which are teaching tales or instructional stories. 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.)

"... a series of children's books that have captivated the hearts and minds of people from all walks of life. The books are tales from a rich tradition of story telling from Central Asia and the Middle East. Stories told and retold to children, by campfire and candlelight, for more than a thousand years." - NEA Today: The Magazine of the National Education Association (U.S.)

"... [these stories] not only entertain, but can be understood on many different levels and provide a form of 'nourishment for the brain' that can help develop thinking abilities and perceptions." - Multicultural Perspectives: An Official Journal of the National Association for Multicultural Education (U.S.)