The title may suggest that this book has a practical purpose, that its stories have a predominantly instrumental (formative) use, and in that sense I delved into reading those stories with a point of mistrust.
But from the beginning I have to acknowledge that I have had a nice surprise. The author, who can be known among us by the work of the Invisible juvenile literature published earlier, from popular stories, says “old stories”, has made a new and updated variant of: “I wanted to adapt to current times: I have changed the situations, the characters, the language… but the essence, the essence is that of always: that which helps us to understand the world.”
This book is composed of 38 short stories, at the end of which the second and third books are announced, and are pieces that are read with a certain speed. Most of the time we are told an event with an ironic, ridiculous or surprising ending. And that end, the end after the narrative, encourages us to reflect on human behavior.
Here, for example, the Respect, the shortest story of the book, which clearly shows the style and direction of the stories:
“A woman was putting flowers in her late husband’s grave and saw an old man in the next tomb leaving a plate of rice.
The woman approached and asked him, by burleses:
- Do you sincerely believe that the one who was your relative will come to eat this rice?
"Yes, of course," said the old man, "the same day that yours comes to smell these flowers."
The stories are simple, without difficulty reading, and not very long – maximum three pages; in this sense, they are very appropriate to read a couple of times a day, as proposed by the author, but also a quiet afternoon, to smile with these stories of the book, which in most cases is the first impression that provokes the reader.
So, it's a very recommendable book to read another book, why not the youngest children who go to bed, or to have a good time, that yes, those stories will help us to understand the world, but above all they will help us to have a good time.