Brave Hong Gil-Dong/the Man Who Bought the Shade of a Tree

Korean Folk Tales for Children #8

by Kim Yong-Kol, Yong-Kol Kim, Yon-Kyong Kim (Illustrator)

Vol. 8 in the 10 vol. Korean Folktales for Children. Two folktales are included in this one bilingual (English/Korean) volume. The first story is about Brave Hong Kil-dong, a commoner, who becomes a chivalrous and well-educated leader of a band of men and works for the cause of justice - a Korean Robin Hood. A greedy man makes a young man pay money for a tree's shade. But he soon learns the shade is much more valuable than the greedy man had ever imagined.

Genres: Folk Tales

46 pages, Hardcover

First published September 3, 1990

Reviews

[Becky B · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this volume of the Korean Folk Tales for Children told in English and Korean, the son of an aristocrat and a slave wanders from home to seek his calling and becomes a Korean Robin Hood. In the second story, a greedy old man seeks to keep others from using the shade of a public tree near his house. A young man convinces him to sell him the shade and the greedy man eagerly takes his money. But as the sun sets, the shade goes places the greedy man had not thought about when selling it.

I liked the illustrations in this volume a lot better than the 7th. The Korean Robin Hood story is interesting, especially since he has some magical powers at his disposal. The shade story was much more clever than I foresaw at first. Recommended for studies of Korea or multicultural options when studying folk tales and fairy tales. You can also compare/contrast the Hong Gil-dong story with Robin Hood tales.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book that I stumbled upon in my collection at home. This novel consists of two Korean folk tales. Brave Hong Kil-Dong tells the story of a young peasant man who stands up against the rich with a rag tag team similar to Robin Hood's. The second tale is about a man who buys the shade of a tree and some silly trickery.
I enjoyed reading these short stories that showed a little Korean culture as well. I was glad that I stumbled upon this book and was able to read it again.