How The Guinea Fowl Got Her Spots by Barbara Knutson

In non-fiction books, Say Something by Peggy Moss (Gardener, ME: Tisbury House, 2004) addresses the importance of bystanders sticking up for those who are the targets of bullying. The Banza by Diana Wolkstein (New York: Dial Press, 1981) tells a Haitian folk tale about a small goat that plays his guitar and sings a song to keep up his courage and outsmart a hungry tiger. How Guinea Fowl Got Her Spots by Barbara Knutson (Cambridge: Carolrhoda Books, Inc., 1990) is an African folk tale, retold, about a small guinea hen that leads her flock in taking on a lion that is threatening her friend, the cow.

The story, 'Androcles and the Lion,' found in most Aesop's collections, involves a runaway slave who helps a lion with a thorn in its paw, and makes a friend for life.

With the help of a rabbit he goes on a journey to meet the 'fear monster' and learns to face his fears directly, and to find courage. This Egyptian folk tale tells the story of a boy who is afraid of everything. The Monster That Grew Small by Joan Grant Marshall (New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1987). It loses its colors in the process, but is never hunted by man again. In this Lenape Indian legend a beautiful colorful crow finds the sun and brings it back to warm the dying earth that has a never-ending winter. Picture books for children about courage include Rainbow Crow, by Nancy Van Lann (New York: Alfred A. A book for older children, in which the phrase 'exercise your courage muscles' is found, is the Kid's Guide to Working Out Conflicts by Naomi Drew (Free Spirit Publishing, 2004).

How The Guinea Fowl Got Her Spots by Barbara Knutson