Title: Hickox, Rebecca. Zorro and Quwi: Tales of a Trickster Guinea Pig. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell, c1997.
Summary: Zorro the fox hunts for Quwi the guinea pig every night in the Peruvian mountains. One night, Quwi sneaks into a garden to hide from Zorro and eats flowers all night long. The next morning, the angry gardener traps Quwi. Zorro finds Quwi in the trap and prepares to eat him. Crafty Quwi tells him that the gardener is forcing him to marry his daughter and live in a mansion; this might sound good, but his future bride is much bigger than he is, and is sure to step on him and crush him. Zorro offers to take Quwi's place in the trap, so that he can live the good life. When the gardener finds him, he beats Zorro with a stick until Zorro manages to escape. Then Zorro finds Quwi pushing against a large rock and again prepares to eat him. Sneaky Quwi tells him the rock was rolling down the hill to crush the village below; if Zorro helps him hold it up, they'll both be heroes. Zorro pushes for a long time but at last, he realizes he's been tricked again. The next morning, Zorro surprises Quwi in the field and once more threatens to eat him. Quwi tells him to go ahead; they'll all be dead soon anyway, because a rain of fire is coming. The panicked Zorro agrees to Quwi's plan to hide in a hole, but once he crawls in, the guinea pig piles thorny bushes over it, saying that they're clouds. He shoves the thorns further into the hole, poking Zorro, and tells him the rain of fire is starting. Zorro falls asleep, and awakes the next day to find nothing has happened. Enraged, Zorro hunts Quwi all day without success. That night, the guinea pig comes to Zorro's den, giving him some cornmeal mush to eat, and apologizing for his trickery. Zorro eats it, but still wants to eat Quwi. Instead, Quwi offers to show Zorro where to find more cornmeal. They creep into a house, and Zorro eats the meal out of a clay pot, but gets his head stuck inside. Quwi promises to give Zorro a rock to break the pot with, but instead leads Zorro to the sleeping home owner's bald head. When Zorro grabs his head, the man startles and wakes! Zorro falls over, breaks the jar, sees the man get his gun, and runs away to the edge of the forest, swearing off guinea pigs!
Cultural origins and how identified: In the afterword, Hickox writes that this story is based a series of tales about "The Mouse and the Fox" from Folktales Told Around the World (University of Chicago Press, 1975). In that book, the stories were told to Jean MacLaughlin by an unnamed 13 year old Peruvian boy. Hickox rewrote 4 of the tales, substituting a guinea pig for the original character of the mouse. She writes that in Peru, Quwi (the Quechua word for guinea pig; cuy in Spanish) is the hero of many trickster tales. The author raised guinea pigs as a child and now has a daughter who does the same, so she decided to make her hero a guinea pig!
Audience: According to School Library Journal, this tale is for K-Grade 3 [ages 5-9]. I agree, but I'd tell this to older audiences too, since I think there's a universal appreciation for trickster tales. This tale would be a lot of fun at a library story time, and could work in the classroom as well.
Summary: Zorro the fox hunts for Quwi the guinea pig every night in the Peruvian mountains. One night, Quwi sneaks into a garden to hide from Zorro and eats flowers all night long. The next morning, the angry gardener traps Quwi. Zorro finds Quwi in the trap and prepares to eat him. Crafty Quwi tells him that the gardener is forcing him to marry his daughter and live in a mansion; this might sound good, but his future bride is much bigger than he is, and is sure to step on him and crush him. Zorro offers to take Quwi's place in the trap, so that he can live the good life. When the gardener finds him, he beats Zorro with a stick until Zorro manages to escape. Then Zorro finds Quwi pushing against a large rock and again prepares to eat him. Sneaky Quwi tells him the rock was rolling down the hill to crush the village below; if Zorro helps him hold it up, they'll both be heroes. Zorro pushes for a long time but at last, he realizes he's been tricked again. The next morning, Zorro surprises Quwi in the field and once more threatens to eat him. Quwi tells him to go ahead; they'll all be dead soon anyway, because a rain of fire is coming. The panicked Zorro agrees to Quwi's plan to hide in a hole, but once he crawls in, the guinea pig piles thorny bushes over it, saying that they're clouds. He shoves the thorns further into the hole, poking Zorro, and tells him the rain of fire is starting. Zorro falls asleep, and awakes the next day to find nothing has happened. Enraged, Zorro hunts Quwi all day without success. That night, the guinea pig comes to Zorro's den, giving him some cornmeal mush to eat, and apologizing for his trickery. Zorro eats it, but still wants to eat Quwi. Instead, Quwi offers to show Zorro where to find more cornmeal. They creep into a house, and Zorro eats the meal out of a clay pot, but gets his head stuck inside. Quwi promises to give Zorro a rock to break the pot with, but instead leads Zorro to the sleeping home owner's bald head. When Zorro grabs his head, the man startles and wakes! Zorro falls over, breaks the jar, sees the man get his gun, and runs away to the edge of the forest, swearing off guinea pigs!
Cultural origins and how identified: In the afterword, Hickox writes that this story is based a series of tales about "The Mouse and the Fox" from Folktales Told Around the World (University of Chicago Press, 1975). In that book, the stories were told to Jean MacLaughlin by an unnamed 13 year old Peruvian boy. Hickox rewrote 4 of the tales, substituting a guinea pig for the original character of the mouse. She writes that in Peru, Quwi (the Quechua word for guinea pig; cuy in Spanish) is the hero of many trickster tales. The author raised guinea pigs as a child and now has a daughter who does the same, so she decided to make her hero a guinea pig!
Audience: According to School Library Journal, this tale is for K-Grade 3 [ages 5-9]. I agree, but I'd tell this to older audiences too, since I think there's a universal appreciation for trickster tales. This tale would be a lot of fun at a library story time, and could work in the classroom as well.
Notes on adaptation for telling: I'm not sure how to pronounce "Quwi", so I might tweak his name into "Kiwi" instead. This is a fun story and I'd tell it in a lively manner, with "And then...what do you THINK?!" to introduce each new episode of Zorro's humiliation!
Kim, It's worth mentioning again-YOU'RE GREAAAAT!
ReplyDeleteI would love to hear you tell this story in particular. Your choice of stories is exceptional. Keep up the wonderful work.