The Greedy Sparrow: An Armenian Tale

THE GREEDY SPARROW: AN ARMENIAN TALE

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Saffron Tree Multicultural Book Reviews

The Greedy Sparrow: An Armenian Tale

retold by Lucine Kasbarian
illustrated by Maria Zaikina

Ages 4-8

Marshall Cavendish Children, April 2011

Folktales and fables from around the world have striking similarities
in that they convey universal truth and wisdom, typically via animal
protagonists, generously laced with humor. And yet, they differ in
the presentation, drawing from cultural traditions of the people
orally handing down these tales.

One of the Armenian folktales passed down through generations in the
author’s family orally is The Greedy Sparrow. The book dedication
reads, To my forbears, great-grandmother, and father, all of whom
preserved the sparrow fable through the ages. The great-grandmother
mentioned is a celebrated storyteller from the Old Country.

I was delighted to get in touch with author/journalist Lucine Kasbarian
a few weeks ago. As her website  notes, the author is passionate
about her ethnic Armenian heritage and enthusiastically shares it
with the world.

The Greedy Sparrow is the first time English retelling of this tale.

It starts with Once there was and was not a sparrow, which suggests
that the tale may be real or imagined, we may never know.

A sparrow gets a thorn in his foot. He flies around and finds a
kindly baker who removes the thorn and tosses it into her oven. The
wily sparrow, instead of thanking her and moving on, comes back a
while later and demands that he get his thorn back. Needless to say,
the baker cannot give it back. Either you give me my thorn or you
give me some bread demands the sparrow. And the baker has no choice
but to give some bread.

The sparrow is not content. He goes about tricking and bartering item
after item, including a new bride in the bargain, until he meets a
minstrel with a lute. When the confounded minstrel has no choice but to
hand over his lute, the sparrow seems contented. He starts singing the
story, In place of a thorn, I got a bread. In place of a bread, I got
a sheep… and so on till, …I got a lute. And now I am a minstrel!

In all the gloating, he loses footing and ends up with a broken lute
and a thorn in his foot. Back at Square One.

Trickery is not rewarded, especially when it takes advantage of the
good nature of people who willingly help others. That message got
cleverly (and clearly) conveyed to my six year old who pored over
the illustrations with fascination, while reading the simple narration.

She particularly like the speech bubbles, with red text reserved for
the sparrow, which automatically made her change her voice and accent
as she read aloud the sparrow’s part in the narration.

Illustrator Maria Zaikina was approached to illustrate The Greedy
Sparrow when the author and publisher viewed her Armenian folk
animations on YouTube:

The bold, vibrant folk-style illustrations complemented the story
well, transporting us to a time and place that evokes nothing but
simple unadulterated joy, and possibly nostalgia for a bygone era.

Ms.Zaikina’s illustrations reminded me of my childhood favorite
Ladushki, Ladushki – Russian Folk Rhymes and Tales For Little
Ones illustrated by Yuri Vasnetsov and retold in English by Irina
Zheleznova, a book vibrant with color and imagination, which to this
day stirs warm memories when I share it with my children.

References to places in Armenia, the map and activities on author’s
website () and the
traditional attire shown in the illustrations gave us a jump start
to explore the geography and culture further.

Here is an interview with the author
(), conducted by Tom
Vartabedian, at Asbarez.com.

[Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the author.]

[image source: ]

From: A. Papazian