Hello!!
I would like to suggest something to improve our reading. Look for a tale you like and copy it here, then propose a question for the rest of the class. I'm going to start with a Harry Potter tale from the Deathly Hallows book.
I hope you enjoy it.
The
Tale of the Three Brothers
There were once three brothers who were travelling
along a lonely, winding road at twilight.
In time, the brothers reached a river too deep to wade
through and too dangerous to swim across. However, these brothers were learned
in the magical arts, and so they simply waved their wands and made a bridge
appear across the treacherous water. They were halfway across it when they
found their path blocked by a hooded figure, Death, and spoke to them. He was
angry that he had been cheated out of three new victims, for travellers usually
drowned in the river. But Death was cunning. He pretended to congratulate the
three brothers upon their magic, and said that each had earned a prize for
having been clever enough to evade him.
So the oldest brother, who was a combative man, asked
for a wand more powerful than any in existence: a wand that must always win
duels for its owner, a wand worthy of a wizard who had conquered Death! So
Death crossed to an elder tree on the banks of the river, fashioned a wand from
a branch that hung there, and gave it to the oldest brother.
Then the second brother, who was an arrogant man,
decided that he wanted to humiliate Death still further, and asked for the
power to recall other from Death. So Death picked up a stone from the riverbank
and gave it to the second brother, and told him that the stone would have the
power to bring back the dead.
And then Death asked the third and youngest brother
what he would like. The youngest brother was the humblest and also the wisest
of the brothers, and he did not trust Death. So he asked for something that
would enable him to go forth from that place without being followed by Death.
And Death, most unwillingly, handed over his own Cloak of Invisibility.
The Death stood aside and allowed the three brothers
to continue on their way and they did so, talking with wonder of the adventure
they had had, and admiring Death's gifts. In due course the brother separated,
each for his own destination.
The first brother travelled on for a week or more, and
reaching a distant village, sought out a fellow wizard with whom he had a
quarrel. Naturally, with the Elder Wand as his weapon, he could not fail to win
the duel that followed. Leaving his enemy dead upon the floor, the oldest
brother proceeded to an inn, where he boasted loudly of the powerful wand he
had snatched from Death, and of how it made him invincible. That very night,
another wizard crept upon the oldest brother as he lay, wine-sodden, upon his
bed. The thief took the wand and, for good measure, slit the oldest brother's
throat. And so Death took the first brother for his own.
Meanwhile, the second brother journeyed to his own
home, where he lived alone. Here he took out the stone that had the power to
recall the dead, and turned it thrice in his hand. To his amazement and his
delight, the figure of the girl he had once hoped to marry before her untimely
death, appeared at once before him. Yet she was sad and cold, separated from
him as by a veil. Though she had returned to the mortal world, she did not
truly belong there and suffered. Finally, the second brother, driven mad with
hopeless longing, killed himself so as truly to join her. And so Death took the
second brother for his own.
But though Death searched for the third brother for
many years, he was never able to find him. It was only when he had attained a
great age that the youngest brother finally took off the Cloak of Invisibility
and gave it to his son. And then he greeted Death as an old friend, and went
with him gladly, and, equals, they departed this life.
What do you think is the moral of the story?
