Folk and author's tales about monkeys

In children's fairy tales, a funny mischievous character is often found - a playful Monkey. Children like fairy tales about monkeys, because these animals are so similar to human babies - they like to play and indulge, run and jump, joke and play.

Monkeys are the main characters of children's fairy tales and stories

Tales of monkeys in a simple, intelligible form teach children a lot. They show what happens to those who forget about friends, become greedy or evil. They also make you think about the need to be responsive and help those who are in trouble. In these fabulous, but instructive stories, stupidity and laziness are ridiculed. There is no such character in Russian folk tales, because in Russia this animal was once a rarity, few ordinary people knew about its existence.

Folk tales about monkeys

In the folklore of the peoples of many countries, where monkeys are the same ordinary animals as for us, for example, a hare or a bear, these funny animals appear. Most often they are shown chatty and stupid. However, in the famous fairy tale “Liver of a living monkey”, a very clever monkey is shown, which managed to outwit its enemies and save itself.

There are many fairy tales where these tailed characters act as the main characters. Here are just some of them:

• “Monkey and crab”, “Monkey with a cut tail”, “King of the monkeys and the magic coin”, “Gift of the goddess Kannon”, “Girl, loach and monkey” (Japan).
• “Monkey and Agouti” (Brazil).
• a cycle of 12 stories makes up the tale "King of the Apes" (China).
• “Cat and Monkeys”, “Turtle and Monkeys” (Indonesia).
• The Magic Monkey (Vietnam).
  “Leopard, deer and monkey” (Angola).
• “Two monkeys”, “Wife of the monkey” (India).
• “Tales of the Lola Monkey”, “How the Fox Tricked the Hyena”, “Partridge and the Hare”, “The Monkey, the Python and the Hare”, “Osebo Drum” and others are included in the African collection of “Casket of Fairy Tales”.
• “Crocodile and Monkey” (Amharic folk tales).

Author's tales

Many children's writers chose the monkey as the main character for his cheerful disposition, for his similarity in habits with a person, for restlessness, close to the child's one, for his credulity and ability to learn. There are tales where these animals are shown to be kind, inquisitive, sympathetic. So, the kind monkey of Chichi in the book of Korney Chukovsky “Doctor Aibolit” persuaded the doctor to go to distant Africa and cure sick monkeys there.

But in the tale of W. Gauf, "The Monkey Man", an ominous image of an orangutan the size of a man appears. And who does not know the fable “Monkey and glasses” by I. A. Krylov, in which a stupid monkey cannot understand the value of glasses! Flying Monkeys in A. Volkov’s book “The Wizard of the Emerald City” helps the girl Ellie to cope with an evil sorceress.

Children's poets V. Berestov, S. Marshak and I. Tokmakova also mentioned monkeys in their works.

Gregory Oster Monkeys

A few fairy tales about monkeys were invented by a fun children's writer and poet Grigory Oster. His characters live in a zoo as a family: mother and five restless kids. Some funny adventures constantly happen to monkey children, and their caring mother saves children and restores order again and again. Gregory Oster wrote 8 of these stories, which were filmed wonderful cartoons. The monkey is again found in the stories of Gregory Oster about friends living in Africa: Baby Elephant, Boa, Parrot and Monkey. Every day funny events take place with them, which are interesting to read or watch a cartoon about. Indeed, the characters of Oster are extremely charming: the Monkey is very active and constantly starts something interesting, the Parrot is extremely smart, the Boa is friendly and calm, and the Elephant is thoughtful.

Eduard Uspensky, Anfisa and Vera

Another popular fairy tale belongs to the pen of the writer beloved by many generations of children and adults, the writer Eduard Uspensky. The tale "About the Monkey Anfisa and the Girl Faith" consists of 11 chapters.

In each chapter, the monkey with its young mistress learn the world, get acquainted with other children and begin to make friends with them, learn safety precautions. The fairy tale about the monkey Anfisa and the girl Vera was filmed, the puppet cartoon immediately became very popular. In addition, E. Uspensky wrote the poem Faith and Anfisa, which was put to music and sounded in the cartoon as a song, "Girl Vera now has a girlfriend ...". The tale about a girl and a monkey was written by Ouspensky in 1986, for several generations of children they have been listening to parental reading with pleasure and reading it themselves.

Monkey story of Boris Zhitkov

He composed a fairy tale about a monkey Boris Zhitkov, a classic of children's literature. However, his composition is not very similar to a fairy tale. Rather, this is a true story of a twelve-year-old boy to whom a school friend gave a tame macaque. Both the boy and his family fell in love with the animal, however, the completely tame monkey did not begin, everything was trying to escape to the street. In the end, the boy had to part with his darling. The story of Boris Zhitkov “About the Monkey” is part of a series of stories about animals. Boris Zhitkov wrote exactly 12 such stories. The story of a street cat and mongoose, a hunter and his dogs, a bunny and others are imbued with kindness, love for animals, respect for their right to life.

Classic writers

The well-known tamer Natalya Durova also wrote a story about the monkey "Emergency, or Chichi the prankster." True, this is not a fairy tale, but a true story from circus life. Nevertheless, it is interesting to read for adults and children.

The Monkey appears in the fairy tale story of Boris Zakhoder “Ma-Tari-Kari”. It refers to the Crocodile, who did not want to brush his teeth and therefore became ill. The monkey began to laugh at him, but the little bird Ma-Tari-Kari helped the Crocodile to recover. After that, the previously evil Crocodile improved his character.

Modern writers

Many modern writers use the image of a monkey, causing certain associations, in their books. Among them are such works:

• The Secret of the Green Monkey by Catherine Wilmont.
• The Adventures of Jacques by Yuri Magalif.
• “Bopsy! Dopsey! Pum! Or Adventures in a Glass Ball ”by Elena Yavetskaya and Igor Zhukov.
• "Lord of the Flying Monkeys" by Sergey Sukhinov and others.

Foreign writers

Tales about monkeys were composed by foreign writers. Gianni Rodari came up with the story "Traveling Monkeys."

Serena Romanelli and Hans de Beer told a funny tale about Little Dodo. Hans Ray’s book, Curious George Finds a Job, with excellent illustrations, always sparks keen interest among the little ones.