Last week I recommended Leo Leoni's "A Strange Egg", and then someone wrote to me privately saying that the story was obviously the author's satire on the frog". All I can say is that either Leo Leo has read a lot of books and knows the idiom culture of our Chinese nation, or it may be the legendary "a thousand readers have a thousand Hamlets".
Without further ado, today I would like to recommend another work by Leo Leo Leoni, "This Is Mine!" 》。
At the beginning of the story, there is another small island, and there are three frogs living on the island. But pay attention, this frog is not a frog (it may be another small island, otherwise Jessica, who found the strange egg, will definitely walk around one day and find that there are three frogs on the other side of the island, haha). The three are Milton, Rupert and Lydia. Unlike the three frogs, the three frogs quarreled at every turn, looking for each other's faults, croaking all day long.
Milton, who had jumped into the pond first, said to the other two frogs, "This water is mine." ”
Rupert, who remained on the island, shouted, "Don't come up to the island, this ground is mine." ”
All that was left was the sky, and Lydia screamed and jumped up to pounce on the butterflies and said, "This sky is mine." ”
Now you can see that the sea, land and air are thus divided up.
At this moment, a large toad appears in the story, expressing dissatisfaction with their daily quarrels. It is worth noting that on the left side of the picture is the appearance of three frogs superimposed on top of each other, corresponding to the large toad on the right side of the picture, it can be intuitively seen that the three frogs added together and the size of the toad is about the same. This not only echoes the "big" of the toad in the text, but also lays the groundwork for the appearance and role of the toad in the later text.
Of course, the three noisy frogs will never stop "frogs" because of the neighbor's "door-to-door complaints". The "war" continues every day. At this moment, the story entered a turning point: suddenly thunder broke out and torrential rain poured down. The water rises, and it looks like it is about to flood the island. The three frogs, who had nowhere to live, struggled to cling to a few small rocks that were still exposed to the surface of the water, but soon the small stones were also submerged.
In the end, only a large stone remained on the surface of the water, and the three frogs had to huddle together and wait for the flood to recede. There's a sentence here that points out the changes in the frogs' emotions: but now they feel much better, because they are together, sharing the same fears and hopes.
When the flood receded, they discovered that what had saved them was not a big rock at all, but a big toad. It was this often disturbed neighbor who saved them at a critical moment in their lives, sharing his broad back to help the frogs get through the storm. This experience made the three frogs realize that the reason why they can have the beauty in front of them again is to experience the same emotions, face difficulties and help each other to get through difficulties, and feel unprecedented happiness, tranquility and beauty when resting together.
Comparisons are made at the end and beginning of the story. Sublimate the frog's previous "this is mine" to "this is ours.".
I think they know the meaning of fraternity and sharing.
Some people say that the image of the big toad is the mother, who comes forward to remind the children when they are divided and quarreling, and gently helps the children when they need help. In short, rather than just preaching, it is better to give them the opportunity to face difficulties and setbacks appropriately, so as to truly understand the meaning of life. Many times parents always feel that their children do not know how to share and will not get along with their children. In fact, children are open-minded. They may not have had the experience of facing difficulties with their friends, or they may not have yet realized the meaning of friendship. Therefore, when children encounter these problems in the process of getting along with their peers, whether it is parents or teachers, as adults, we should not only care about "reasoning" with them, we should help them think, try to let them face themselves, and children will naturally solve their own problems in their own way.