The Wise Old Woman By: Yoshiko Uchida

     This is a folktale from Japan retold by Uchida with compassion and grace.   Uchida is widely acclaimed for her stories about the Japanese-American experience.  Other stories written by Uchida include: Journey Home, A Jar of Dreams, The Best Bad Thing, The Happiest Ending, and The Magic Purse.
     Other than wonderful grandparents, children have a hard time relating to elderly people.  They live in two completely different worlds and have very little in common.  Very often children grow up under the impression that elderly people are useless.  This story explains to children through a magical story why we should cherish the elderly and listen to their wisdom.  If the son had left his mother to die in the mountains as he was instructed to do, he would have never known how to solve the three impossible tasks. But because of his mother's wisdom, the village was saved.