Primary (ages 6-9)

Material appropriate for primary age groups

Luba and the Wren

In this variation on the story of “The Fisherman and His Wife,” a young Ukrainian girl must repeatedly return to the wren she has rescued to relay her parents’ increasingly greedy demands.

A Perfect Pork Stew

When Ivan the Fool meets Baba Yaga, the witch of Russian folklore fame, on a day that has begun badly for her, he outwits her by making dirt soup, getting a fine, fat pig in the bargain.

The Devils Who Learned to Be Good

After feeding two starving beggars, an old Russian soldier receives a magical flour sack and deck of playing cards which help him to remove some pesky devils from the Tsar’s palace.

Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave

A retelling of the old Russian fairy tale in which beautiful Vasilisa uses the help of her doll to escape from the clutches of the witch Baba Yaga, who in turn sets in motion the events which lead to the once ill-treated girl’s marrying the tzar.

Noah and the Devil: A Legend of Noah’s Ark from Romania

In this Romanian folk version of the Noah story, getting the animals to march, two by two, onto the ark is the easy part–it was persuading his wife to come aboard that gave Noah a headache. And when he snapped, “Oh, you devil, come in!,” that gave the Devil himself just the invitation he needed. Once aboard, in the shape of a mouse, the Devil gnawed a hole in the ark, to sink it beneath the flood.