Deception & Trickery
Disguises, misleading promises, false evidence and ingenious escapes drive these stories. A trick may protect someone, exploit them or do both at different moments. Follow who knows the truth and who pays for the deception, then consider whether success makes the method fair.
Celtic Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Children of Lir
Their jealous stepmother turns Lir’s four children into swans, doomed to wander the lakes and seas of Ireland for nine hundred years.
Aesop's Fables
Ages 6-8
The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
A wolf hides in a sheepskin to slip into the flock, but the disguise works too well when the shepherd reaches into the fold for meat.
African Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Clever Tortoise and the Elephant
Tortoise wins two strength bets by secretly anchoring the rope to a rock and a palm, then lets Elephant and Hippopotamus believe he pulled it himself.
Norse Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Apples of Idun
When a giant in eagle form traps Loki, the price of his freedom is Idun and her golden apples, and without them the gods of Asgard start to grow old.
Arabian Nights
Ages 9-12
The Barber’s Tale of His Sixth Brother
Schacabac plays along with a Barmecide's invisible feast, earns a real one and twenty years' favour—then loses all when his patron dies.
Southeast Asian Folk Tales
Ages 6-8
The Mouse-Deer and the Crocodiles
Mouse-deer needs to cross a flooded river, so he tells the crocodiles that the king wants them counted, and they line up across the water for him.
Aesop's Fables
Ages 3-5
The Fox and the Grapes
A hungry fox jumps again and again for a bunch of grapes hanging out of reach, then strolls off insisting they were sour all along.
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Ages 6-8
Rumpelstiltskin
A miller’s boast traps his daughter in a room of straw; a strange little man spins gold—then claims her first child unless she learns his name.
Chinese Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
Mulan, the Maiden Chief
Mulan rides her father's horse to the northern wars, wins glory and refuses a reward, then returns home, where removing her helmet reveals her identity.
Japanese Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Grateful Crane
A young farmer frees a wounded crane, marries a gentle stranger whose secret weaving saves his family, and loses her when he peeks through the wall.
Russian Folk Tales
Sadko
A poor Novgorod dulcimer player is paid in jewels by the Tzar of the Sea, grows rich, and twelve years later must leap overboard to keep his promise.
Norse Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Death of Baldur
When everything in the world swears never to harm Baldur, jealous Loki goes hunting for the one small plant that was never asked to make that promise.