I love that book! I must admit I'm not brave enough to eat the real thing, though. Here's a riddle, is it green eggs and green ham, or are only the eggs green? I've seen them cooked both ways.

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Last year my mother found this copy of Green Eggs and Ham in spanish, oh the things you can find at Borders. She ended up giving it to my two year old nephew, my sister being half Pourto Rican and all, for Christmas last year. Yeah, I have the privilege to read it to him every time I baby sit.
Vitamin C

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ALL religous teachings are called myths by someone. The word isn't a diss, it is the proper name for a collection of tales that explain a culture's spiritual background.

Try being a witch. We get accused of making a religion out of fairy tales. Which are also sacred teachings. Hey the truth had to be passed on somehow, right?

Lovely article and thanks for giving such a broad look at the world's mythologies.

Yvonne, calm down. She meant no insult. Wait until they start calling your sacred tales folklore like they do mine.

I don't think anyone here would disrespect the teachings about Raven, coyote, or the path for each Native American tribe.

Remember that your sacred teachings have only become open to outsiders rather recently. So they need time to get used to the idea that they are sacred.

Which will be about the time I can wear a pentacle in public without fear, no doubt. Why not set up a website to educate people?

Each tribe has very different tales and paths to Diety. So it would be wonderful to see the teachings presented by someone who knows them as well as you do.

Hey my Gods get passed off as dead or demonic. So I hear you loud and clear on what a dominant culture can do to folks.

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Teachers complain that parents don't read nursery rhymes to kids, which help develop the memory and give the kids a sort of common cultural background. I read fairy tales -- by then in versions called The Brothers Grimm and Perault -- into my teens and ended up studying mythology in my 40s.

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, Seminole of Florida and Iroquois of New York don't share the same beliefs at all. And that's not even taking into account the beliefs of dead cultures like the Mexica and Calusa. So, can we please not lump them all together into some undifferentiated mass when riding to their defense?

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Coming from someone who was a voracious reader of everything fantastical as a kid, Julie, I'd say your best bet is to give your kids a wide variety of reading material. Kids *like* the dark and violent stuff. It's a safe and entertaining way for them to learn about the cruel side of life and an important way in which you can teach them how to navigate it later on (and when they're teens, they'll probably watch every horror movie they can for the same reason).

And Yvonne, get off your high horse. I learned a lot about my Native American heritage from reading "indigenous stories" in books about fairy tales. Your distinction between "sacred teachings" and "fun reading" is totally specious, anyway. For a start, myths are defined as stories that explain why things happen in the world the way they do. So, by that light, Noah's Ark, Prometheus giving humans fire and Raven stealing the sun are all myths. Nothing insulting about calling them that. It's the correct term.

For another, a lot of European "fairy tales" are derived from sacred teachings, whether they're mostly Christian (King Arthur) or much older pagan beliefs for which we have only those fairy tales as a source. Seems to me you're insulting European pagans in the same way as you claim to be insulted, especially since, for someone who's all about Native Americans/First Nations not being insulted, you seem pretty vague about those beliefs. The Eskimos of Alaska, Inuit of Nunavut, Haida of BC, Hopi of Arizona, Seminole

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Like Kayte Young, I had Christianity forced on me as a child too (I hated Sundays because of the weekly fight over having to go to Sunday school and the fact that I was always in trouble there for asking questions that couldn't answered without quoting Scripture). I was, however, raised on other cultures' legends and mythology at the same time, so I got my eyes opened to other cultures and their stories.

Now my husband and I are Wiccans, but I'm making sure to include other cultures' stories and legends in our house library. Right now the religious texts section includes the Bhagavad-Gita, the Book of Mormon, the KJV Bible, and a book titled "My Friend's Beliefs" that covers a majority of the world religions and their practices, as well as our large section of Wiccan/Pagan books. Other cultures' stories include the Native American legends, the Greek myths, a book of African legends, and a book of Japanese legends. (It's amazing what you can find at yard sales!) I plan to get other religion and mythology books at Borders when I can scrape together the money, and rest assured our kids will have full access to them whenever they wish!

As part of our religious beliefs, we have an Esbat tradition that involves African legends. Every full moon, I read "Anansi the Spider" to my children, which tells the Ghanaian legend of how the moon came to be in the sky and Anansi's part in it. Afterwards, we go outside to see if the moon is out. It's a great Esbat bedtime ritual!

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I remember my parents reading me fairy tales when I was very young and being absolutely enthralled by them - scary stuff and all. When I was about 9, I found fairy tales from all over the world in our local library and devoured every book in that section. I remember being very disappointed when there weren't any more to read. I was fascinated by all of the different characters and places that I had never heard of before. I'm sure this was one of my first exposures to cross-cultural differences and contributed to my later openness in exploring cultures and ideas beyond the ones I grew up with.

The fact that I'm 58 as I write this and I still can feel the excitement I felt back then, when I opened a new book of fairy tales from a foreign place or culture, is a testament to the power they had on my life . I believe they are an important part of our childhood growth and development, as well-rounded individuals, so I passed on that excitement by reading them to my children in turn who were equally enthralled.

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because i feel that christianity was forced on me as a child, i was hesitant to share anything religious with my child.
but i have made my peace with sharing bible stories with him by including them in the wide array of myths, legends, folktales, fairy tales and other stories that we read to him, from many cultures. i don't differentiate them (as they were in my upbringing) as true, or divine. they are just stories. some have great moral teachings in them, some don't.

oh, and ditto what marvin caplan said.

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In Response to Yvonne Dennis,
While I have some sympathy for her position, Julie did include "native" or first nations' stories - the Aboriginal stories from Australia. One of the truisms that has become almost trite is "The perfect is the enemy of the good." Rather than chastising Julie, a supportive note that encouraged a more level playing field for Native American stories and legends.

In fact, one theme that runs through many first nations stories is that of the Trickster - often a Raven. Older children and adults might see a connection to Jacob who tricked his Brother and Father and changes his name (to Israel. ) Many believe that common themes are often fond cross culturally.

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