Hello and welcome to Super Great Kids Stories.
Wise tales from storytellers around the world which will make you laugh and sometimes cry.
Recommended for ages 5 to 105.
I'm Kim and I love stories.
Today's story is Rabbit Tricks Wolf.
It's a story from the Cherokee Nation.
A little word of warning.
If you love cows or if you're a vegetarian, you might want to avoid this tale.
Gail also tells a beautiful story about a bird with big feet.
Maybe try that one.
How are you, Super Great Story fans?
I hope you had a happy week.
I've been swimming in lakes in Sweden.
I wonder if any of you have been on an adventure yet.
Do let us know if you've been on a fun holiday.
You might even have been visiting the UK or about to.
When I return from my little trip, we'll start planning our live storytelling performance in Hammersmith's Irish Cultural Centre in London to celebrate our fifth birthday on Saturday, September the 20th.
And for those of you in other parts of the world, Amy Douglas and Jason Buck are putting on a Super Great Kids Stories online show on Saturday, September the 14th.
Me, Amy and Jason will be telling stories on Zoom.
You can buy tickets for our live show in London and our online show in the news section of our website, supergreatkidsstoriescom.
Our storyteller today is Gail Ross from the Cherokee Nation.
Her beautiful storytelling springs from the rich Native American heritage and from her grandma, who was also a storyteller.
And just before we settle down to hear her tale, I have a little challenge for you.
How many ways can you think of to start a story?
Here's one to get you started.
That's Irish.
And remember that one?
That's Japanese.
Can you think of any ways to start a story?
Ready?
Off you go.
If Red Riding Hood had found a great security guard quickly, she'd have escaped the wolf.
If Jack had fast access to a financial advisor, he wouldn't have had to sell Daisy the cow.
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Hello, Super Great Kids.
I'm back.
I wonder what you came up with.
How would you start your story?
There's snip, snap, snout, story, jump, out.
Or there's mouth, open, story, jump, out.
And there is crick, crack.
That's what some tellers from the Caribbean might say.
And there's había una vez, that's Spanish for once upon a time.
And of course there is.
Are you sitting comfortably?
Am i sitting comfortably?
Then i'll begin, but right now it's time for this week's trickster story.
So let's give a very warm welcome to gail ross.
Hello friends, My name is Gail Ross and I'm a Cherokee storyteller.
OCO is how we say hello in Cherokee.
I want to share a story with you today about a character we Cherokee people tell a lot of stories about.
His name is Chistu.
Gistu is how you say rabbit in Cherokee.
Now, in the beginning days of the world, when all creatures spoke the same language, rabbit was always in trouble.
He was in trouble because he talked all the time.
And he loved to play tricks on people.
Now, sometimes his tricks didn't work out very well, and he ended up hurting only himself.
Like the time he made Bear.
So mad Bear reached out, grabbed Rabbit's long, bushy tail and snapped it off.
That's how come you don't see rabbits anymore with long bushy tails.
But some of his tricks work out just the way he wants them to.
And this is one of those stories.
Now, what happened was Rabbit and Wolf went hunting together.
Neither of them had been having very much luck putting meat on their family's tables, and their wives were not happy with them.
So Rabbit and Wolf made a vow that they would go out, they would hunt all day and they wouldn't come home until there was meat for both their tables.
Now they hunted all day long.
And finally late, late in the afternoon, they managed to kill Rabbit, one skinny, scrawny little cow.
Wolf chased her around and around a bush rabbit popped up with a great big club and whack.
That little cow was dead now.
Wolf was very proud of himself.
But rabbit, He was looking at that scrawny little cow.
He didn't see that there would be enough meat there for both their families.
So, of course, immediately he started trying to think of a way to keep all that meat for himself.
And after a while...
He had what he thought was a pretty good idea.
He turned to Wolf.
He said, you did the hard work of chasing this cow so that I could hit her.
I should do the hard work of cutting up the meat to get it ready to cook.
Look over there.
And he pointed to the western sky.
You know that red glow in the sky when the sun is going down?
Rabbit said, look, there's people over there with the campfire.
You run over there, borrow fire from those people, and when you come back I will have everything ready.
Well, Wolf had never heard Rabbit offer to work hard.
So he was glad to go and borrow fire.
He ran all the way up to the top of that ridge.
There were no people there.
There was no fire.
But that red glow was still there in the sky, so Wolf thought they must be on top of the next ridge.
He ran down that hill, up to the top of the next.
There were no people there.
There was no campfire.
So Wolf went running to the sunset.
And that red glow got smaller and smaller, and then it went out altogether.
Wolf said, selfish people put out their campfire.
I will just go and build a fire of my own.
And he turned and headed back.
But he had run a long way chasing that sunset and it took him a while to get back to where he had left Rabbit and the cow.
Now, as soon as wolf had gone away, rabbit got very busy.
He cut up the meat, he wrapped it in that hide and he hid it out of sight.
Then he took that scrawny little cow-tail.
He stuck it down in the dirt, so the only thing sticking up was the end of the tail.
And when he saw Wolf coming back, he pretended to be pulling on it with all his might.
Wolf, Rabbit called, this cow is jumping away under the ground.
Help me.
Wolf went running over there, grabbed a hold of that tail, gave a big tug and, of course, that tail popped right off.
Woo, Rabbit said.
You are so strong, you pulled her tail right off.
Since I am the one who let her jump underground...
You should keep this.
And he gave Wolf that scrawny little cow tail meat for Wolf's table.
And then he went and got the bundle of good meat, took it home to his wife and his children and they ate well that night.
But Walt and his family.
They were left with a very poor supper because all they had was just the tail.
Wado.
Oh, thank you so much, Gail, for sharing that story.
Wado means thank you in Cherokee.
Chistu got away with it that time, didn't he?
But who knows what Wolf might do if he finds out that he was tricked.
And here is my question.
A lot of folk tales are about food one way or another.
The enormous turnip.
Knorr and the ackee fruit.
Stone soup.
The magic orange tree.
Why do you think that is?
Well, when these stories were being told 200 or 300 years ago, many people were very poor and more people knew what it was like not to have enough food on the table.
So they told stories about that experience, maybe to take their minds off their rumbling tummies.
Maybe you could draw us a picture of Wolf running towards the sunset, desperate to get some fire to cook his dinner on.
Send us your pictures for Story Owl to post and you might even get a mention on the podcast as the artist who drew the Pick of the Week picture.
And we'll post your pictures on our Facebook and Instagram picture gallery.
Send those pictures to facebookcom, forward slash supergreatkidsstories or to our website supergreatkidsstoriescom, and StoryOwl will reply to you.
Now, it's time to say hello to some new owlets who've recently joined our storytelling club.
So let's spread our wings and fly around the world with StoryOwl to meet them.
Let's begin in Virginia in the United States, where James, who is five, lives on a small farm with chickens, ducks and goats.
James has just become an owlet and is enjoying the scary stories.
Very brave James.
On to Mesa in Arizona now, where Remy became an owlet for her seventh birthday.
She and her four-year-old brother Xander listen in the car and while having breakfast.
Their current favourites are Molly and the Skeleton and the Cheeky Cockerel.
And...
Let's greet Teddy, who is five and lives in Pasadena in California.
He listens on road trips in the car.
His favourite is Skeletons and the Man Who Was Afraid of Nothing.
And his dad's favourite is Death and the Starfruit Tree.
To Santa Cruz in California next and hello to Tao.
And Koi.
Their favourites are The Hairy Toe, all of the Baba Yaga stories and anything told by Jason.
But I agree, Jason is just great.
Across the US to New Jersey next, where Lena, who is eight, and Joan, who is four, live in Maplewood.
Lena's favourites are A Nancy and the Hot Pepper Soup and The Ghost of the Bloody Finger.
And Joan loves all of the Baba Yaga stories.
And we're off to Cornelius in North Carolina.
Now to greet Stella, who is seven, and Grayson, who is nine.
Their favourite stories are Eggshell Soup Baby, Crocodile's Birthday and The Ghost of the Bloody Finger.
They're big fans of Toop and Kate Corkery.
Me too.
And now to Alameda in California to say hello to Austin, who is nine, and six-year-old Chase.
Their favourites are How the Leopard Got Its Spots and The Ghost of the Bloody Finger and across to Salem in Oregon to say hello to Cora who is eight.
She listens on road trips and when doing chores at home.
She enjoys the scary stories, including the Baba Yaga ones.
Back to the east coast of the US now, and Eamonn, who is six, and his nine-year-old sister Niamh, are in New York.
Eamonn says he doesn't have a favourite because he loves all the stories.
Ah, that's lovely to hear Eamonn.
And Niamh says if she had to pick just one It would be the luck child.
Good choice, Niamh.
And crossing to Europe, let's swoop down to Zurich, in Switzerland, where Anna, who is nine, has been listening for the past four years.
Wow.
Thank you, Anna, for such loyal listening.
Her favourites are the Anansi and Baba Yaga stories, the How Am I stories and the Ghost of the Bloody Finger.
And now that she's a subscriber, she's enjoying the scary stories too.
Lovely.
Well done, Anna.
And let's go down to Western Australia, where Anastasia, who is seven, and nine-year-old Orlando live in Oakford.
They listen while getting ready for school and on the way to and from school and at bedtime.
Ooh, that's a lot of story listening.
Good for you.
I wonder if you tell each other stories.
Their favourites are The Hairy Toe and The Ghost of the Bloody Finger.
And that's it for Owlet Welcomes this week.
We appreciate your support.
More hellos next week.
And our pick of the week picture goes to Mia from California for her amazing picture and sculpture of Baba Yaga's face.
Your drawing of Baba Yaga's hut is very imaginative and super scary.
It looks so menacing, with the crow standing guard on the roof and the fence, with glowing skulls on each post.
And yikes, there is Baba Yaga hovering over it with all her spiky hair, bony fingers and extremely long nose.
I wouldn't like to meet her on a dark night, would you?
And your sculpture of Baba Yaga's face in clay is also super scary.
Thank you for sharing your art with us.
If you'd like to see Mia's work, go to our Facebook page facebookcom.
Forward slash super great kids stories.
And thanks to all of you who are subscribing to our podcast.
We really appreciate those of you who feel you can support us.
If you subscribe on Patreon, you get a choice of two tiers three pounds a month, less than four US dollars or six pounds a month.
That's about eight US dollars.
And for that, you'll get a shout out, plus advert free, plus over 50 bonus stories.
And, of course, all the Super Great Scary stories.
Plus, you'll get access to our Super Great Kids Stories Express, which cuts straight to the story.
Great for listening to stories back to back.
If you subscribe on Apple, it's £6 a month and you get all of those perks.
Visit our website for more details, supergreatkidsstories.com.
That's it for now.
Remember, you'll get a discount on our super great book if you pre-order it before September, the 11th.
Go to our website and look for the discount link in the news section.
You can also see a few pictures if you click that link.
Thank you in advance for your support.
Keep telling your stories and singing your songs.
Have a happy week.
This podcast was produced by Kim Normanton and David Smith at Wardour Studios in fabulous Fitzrovia in London.
