Blue Bird
A story from Martinique
Blue Bird told by Jan Blake
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Story
Two old women live next door to each other. One of them rescues a blue bird with an injured wing and takes care of it. Just before the bird flies away, it drops a pumpkin seed into the lady’s hand. Every day, she waters this pumpkin seed, and it grows bigger and bigger. Eventually, she opens the pumpkin and inside, it is full of delicious food. She gives half of it to her neighbour and tells her that the food was given to her as a reward for her kindness towards the injured bird. The neighbour is jealous and sets out to find her own injured bird but she doesn’t take good care of it and when her pumpkin grows it's full of creepy crawlies!
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Why we chose it
Storyteller Jan Blake told us this story. There are many stories from all over the world where kindness and care are rewarded while cruelty is punished – this one comes from the Caribbean.