A Story to share with your students "The Boy who ate stars"

The Boy Who Ate stars

The boy had always wanted to eat stars. At night he would look up at the little areas of the sky, and wish so hard that he may reach out beyond the trees to pluck the twinkling stars, and put them into his mouth.

He lived in a small village deep in the forest. There was nothing much to do at night, except look up at the stars peering through the many leaves and branches and wish that he may reach out beyond the tall trees to pluck the little stars from the sky. He wished so hard and so long, for so many nights, that he finally made it happened.

one day a stranger came to the village. He brought sharp things which could cut trees faster than anything the boy had seen. He promised the people on the village that they would get what they wanted, make all their wishes come true, if they allwed him to cut the trees around them as fast as he could.

At the end of the day many trees had fallen on the ground. There seemed to be so much more of the sky. When evening came there were also many more stars to be seen, and the boy looked up and more strongly that he wanted to taste them in his mouth.

The stranger sensed his wish and approached him. “All you have to do,” said the stranger, “is say your wish out loud for me to hear and I will grant it.”

The looked up at the stranger with pleading eyes, and said, “I want to eat some stars.”

The stranger smiled and nodded. He looked up the sky. Which ones?” he asked the boy.

“That one,” the boy pointed out with a rigid finger.” And that one, and that one, and all those over there.” he swept his arm in an arc across the night sky.

“Go ahead and reach out for them,” said the stranger. ”You may eat as much as you wish.”

The boy believed him in an instant. He reach out towards the stars and caught them in his hand. His wish had come true. He brought the stars to his mouth and ate them in one gulp. He found their taste to his liking.

The next day the stranger cut down more of the trees in the forest. That night more stars shone in the sky.

The boy went up to the stranger and ask if he could eat more stars. The stranger smile and nodded and told him that every night, just as much as he wished, he could reach out for the stars of his choice and put them in his mouth.

The boy flung his arm up into the sky and caught more stars, and ate them as had been his wish.

Each day the stranger cut down more trees. Each night more stars would shine in new parts of the sky, and the boy had his fill reaching out and tasting the stars of his choice.

The people on the village were all happy that the stranger seemed to grant their every wish. They allowed him to cut down as many trees as he wanted, until the view of the sky became larger and larger.

Soon there were no more trees to cut of what had been their forests. And the man said goodbye and went away.

That night the boy ate all the rest of the stars in the whole sky.

In the days and nights to come, the people in the village show how the wishes that had been granted them soon came to a stop.

Even the boy was hungering for more stars to eat, but the entire sky grew dark and not a single star could be seen.

The villagers became restless and more were rendered sick. They began to fight among themselves, over many small reasons. In the day they lamented the loss of their trees, and at night they were saddened by the loss of all the stars.

One day another stranger came. He brought a single tree and told the villagers that they could have it, since they appeared to have lost their forest. They allowed him to plant a tree, and promised to make it grow, to bear more trees, until they had their forest to live in again.

The second stranger also told them that they should stop fighting among themselves. He said that they would remember, he would place a star atop the tree. Each time they looked at the star, they would think of peace, and that would put a stop to all their fighting.

The boy saw the star placed atop the tree. He wished so hard that he could reach out to take the star. He wanted so much to eat it.

The second stranger approached the boy and told him that it was the star of peace. He explained that it was not meant to be eaten, just all other stars now missing from the sky had not been meant to be eaten. He said that they were there to remind people at night, when fears and wishes fought inside them, that peace rained in the sky and should also reign in their lives.

“The stars are like the trees,” said the second stranger to the boy. “Each one reminds us that we should still the greed in our hearts. Each tree, each star, teaches us the ways of peace.”

The boy looked at the star atop of the tree. Tears came to his eyes. He felt so sorry that he had eaten up all the stars in the sky. He began to choke, and felt a fervent wish to gi9ve back the stars so that the tree and the sky would again light up their lives.

The second stranger told the boy to stop crying. “Wish upon a star of peace, and you will get your wish for all the time.”

The boy wished as hard as he could upon the star of peace atop the tree, and soon his mouth tasted the salt of all his tears in the past. He saw the faces around him, all wishing for more trees and more star so they could regain their happy lives in peace.

Stars tumbled out the boy’s mouth. All the stars he ever ate twinkled back to life. Some flew to the single tree and attached themselves to its many branches. He tree glittered in splendour, and the villagers all fell to their knees and marvelled.

The stars kept coming out of the boy’s mouth they soared in all directions up to the night sky, and took their places until everything again seemed familiar.

The boy was beside himself with joy at the sight of so many stars. He hadn’t realized how much he had wished to satisfy his hunger. But now that they were all back in the sky, he was grateful that the second stranger had given them all a second chance to regain their happy lives.

In days and nights to come, the single tree grew and bore fruit amid its many glittering stars. The stars flew out of the tree to scatter the fruits all around, before they too took their rightful places in the sky.

The fruits grew into trees and more trees, until the villagers regained the happy forest of their lives. At night they saw less of the many stars in the sky, but they had their trees and they knew the stars would remain where they were meant to be.

The boy grew up to be a man, only too happy to see but a few stars. The sight of one was enough to remind him to still the hunger in his heart. And as a man he remembered, that peace came only to boys and girls, and men and women, of good wishes.

A Story to share with your students

The Runaway Princesses

(Mindanao)

Long long in the mist of the time, there lived a datu or a king who had three beautiful daughters, when the youngest of the daughters reached the age of seven years, their mother the queen passed away. The Datu and his daughters were heart brokens at the death of the queen. The datu soon became a very lonely and depressed Man who longed to find a new mother for his three daughters whom he loved dearly. Eventually, the datu found a new wife whom he thought would a good mother to his daughters and leave him time to run his kingdom, which he neglected of late. Unfortunately, the new queen turned out to be a scheaming, mean and evil woman whos only reason for marrying the datu, was to gain control of his kingdom. While the datu was busy running his empire, his new queen made the lives of his three daughters pure mystery. She withdrew all their royal privrledges and they were force to become nothing more than her maids- in- waiting.she made them scrub the floors of the palace, cook her food and washed her c;lothes. If any of the daughters disobeyed the queen, she would beat them and lock them in the dungeon for hours on and without food and without water. The three princesses were very, very unhappy with their new  step mother but said nothing to their father, the kin g in case he did not believe them, or in case they hurt his feelings. When the harsh treatmrnt and abused by the wicked queen became too much for the three princesses to take anymore, they decided to run away from the palce. So, one night, without telling anyone even their father the three daughters silently escaped from the palace under the light of  the full moon they boarded a large kumpit, or sailboat and sailed away from the palace across a peaceful and calm sea. But back at the palace, the queen used the magic powers of her third eye and in her mind, was able to see the three girls escaping across the sea in their boat. This was the perfect time to put her evil plans into action and seize control of the kingdom. First she would use her magic powers to kill the three daughters and then she would kill the father, the king. Then the kingdom would belong to her. Using the concentration of her evil mind and the powers of a magic and, the evil queen summoned up the dark forces of nature over the calm sea. Dark clouds appear out of nowhere and obscured the bright moon. The three princesses become frightened and clung to one another for comfort. A mighty storm raged around the sailboat. Huge waves swelled out of the sea, tossing the helpless wooden boat to and fro. A mighty crash of thunder filled the dark night sky and lightning fleshed from the angry clouds. A strong wind gusted across the undulating sea, venting its anger boats and its three terrified occupants. Then a mighty, fiery thunderbolt roared down from the heavens, hitting the boat which exploded into three pieces. The three helpless princesses were tossed into the raging sea and disappeared beneath the violent waves. When the king returned to the palace that night and saw that his new queen was using her evil power to destroy his three daughters, he became angry. The king snatched an ax from one of the palace guards and with one powerful blow, cut off the queen’s head. The queen fell dead on the floor and her evil powers were no more. The had no idea whether he would ever see his daughters alive again and fell to his knees and with head in his hands. Meanwhile, in the night sea, the storm subsided and the waters once more became calm and peaceful. The three princesses had each manage to cling to one piece of the boat wreckage and were still alive. But they were drifting far, far apart from each other. the eldest princess drifted toward the north, the youngest princess was drifting toward the south, meanwhile the third princess remained in the same place where the the boat was wrecked. All three princesses were exhausted fro their terrifying ordeal and they all closed their eyes as they clung to the drifting pieces of their wrecked boat. When the sun rose in the sky the next morning, the fishermen who had set out to see the daybreak, were amazed to see that three new islands had risen out of the sea during the the night. The island that appeared in the north, they named “Luzon”. The island that had appeared in the south, they named “Mindanao”. And the island that had appeared in the middle they called “Visayas”. Now the king was never really sure of course, but he believed that the three new, beautiful islands that grew from the sea during the night, were created for his three beautiful daughters to live. That made him very, very happy.