The book "Treasury of virtues: Courage, Love, Honesty," is a wonderful book full of tradition stories that have been passed down from generation to generation. I focussed on the tale, "Stone Soup." This is a tale about a traveler who comes across a stone while traveling to a villiage full of poeple that do not communicate with one another. Also, they do not want to share their food with the starving traveler. After asking most of the villagers for food, the traveler gives up and decides to rest. While resting, he notices that the village is beautiful and wonders why none of the villagers are out enjoying the beauty they are surrounded by. The traveler comes up with a plan to tell the villagers that the stone is magic and can make magic soup. The village gets very excited and decide to all share their food and make magic soup. In the end, the stone, and the traveler, brought the community laughter and friendship again.

I really enjoyed this tale because the traveler never gave up and never had a bad additude about the situation. I think children and adults alike can learn something from this tale: the gift of thinking positivly and keeping hope alive.

"Stone Soup" can be used in a classroon setting as a class discussion on the importance of friendship, sharing, and having a positive additude. For example, maybe each student could bring an item from home and participate in making their own version of stone soup. ( )