The Man Who Couldn't Tell a Lie

This book Juan Verdades: The Man Who Couldn't Tell A Lie by Joe Hayes is an excellent stylus for encrypting the code of "thou shalt not lie" onto your child's character.

Summary:

"Don Ignacio trusts Juan, his ranch foreman, to care for his herd and his prized apple tree. When don Ignacio's friend don Arturo boasts that he can make Juan Verdades tell a lie, don Ignacio wagers his ranch against his friend's on his overseer's honesty. Don Arthur and his daughter Araceli plot to use her beauty to captivate the foreman into deceit. When Juan's love for Araceli causes him to strip the apple tree and deliver the fruit to her, it appears that don Arturo has won the bet. But Juan's clever admission to his master and Araceli's own plans for the future provide a surprise twist in this retelling of a traditional folktale."

My young daughters were enthralled with the story. They were rooting for Juan Verdades to tell the truth and save his master's ranch. The 9 year old grasped the storyline and the moral completely. Though a bit deep for the 5 year old, she easily sat through the whole telling and got the message that those who tell the truth will be rewarded.

This book spans the ages well. I'll be handing it over to my 14 year old to read today. Juan admits his guilt to his employer in a cleaver way by using a rhyme which my 9 year old studied for minutes after the reading in an attempt to tackle each clue:

"Some fool picked your apples and gave them away."

What fool?

"The father of the fool is my father's father's son. The fool has no sister and no brother. His child would call my father 'grandfather.' He's ashamed that he did what was done."

Excellent storyline. Excellent example. Excellent training in character and virtue.

More to Life

They were in the living room-room eating their suppers on their knees in front of the telly. The suppers were TV dinners in floppy aluminium containers with separate compartments for the stewed meat, the boiled potatoes and the peas. Mrs. Wormwood sat munching her meal with her eyes glued to the American soap-opera on the screen.

"Mummy," Matilda said, "would you mind if I ate my supper in the dining-room so I could read my book?"


The father glanced up sharply. "I would mind!" he snapped. "Supper is a family gathering and no one leaves the table till it's over!"



"But we're not at the table," Matilda said. "We never are. We're always eating off our knees and watching the telly."



"What's wrong with watching the telly, may I ask?" the father said. His voice had suddenly become soft and dangerous.



Matilda didn't trust herself to answer him, so she kept quiet. She could feel the anger boiling up inside her. She knew it was wrong to hate her parents like this, but she was finding it very hard not to do so. All the reading she had done had given her a view of life that they had never seen. If only they would read a little Dickens or Kipling they would soon discover there was more to life than cheating people and watching television.



~ Matilda by Roald Dahl

Reading to Your Toddler

Great post at Mommy Speech Therapy for "Reading with Your Toddler", complete with a video to watch.