Why Bananas Belong to Monkeys:E190
Find out why we think of bananas as belonging to monkeys in this fun Brazilian Folktale. (duration 13 minutes) An episode from Storytelling podcast, Journey with Story for kids ages 4-10.
Don’t forget to check out some other great kids podcasts on the Kids Listen Mashup Podcast, where two similar podcasts meet up to play a fun game related to their particular podcast. Journey with Story paired with Girl Tales to play a fun storytelling game using idioms on April 17th. You can find out more details and see the complete schedule here
If you would like to enjoy our weekly coloring sheets and other perks, subscribe to our patreon page here
If your little listener wants to ask us a question or send us a drawing inspired by one of our episodes, send it to us at instagram@journeywithstory. Or you can contact us at www.journeywithstory.com. We love to hear from our listeners.
If you enjoy our podcast, you can rate, review, and subscribe at here
Did you know Kathleen is also a children’s picture book author, you can find out more about her books at www.kathleenpelley.com
Learn Why We Think of Bananas as Belonging to Monkeys in this Fun Brazilian Folktale
E: 190 June 23, 2022
Do you like bananas? What is your favorite way to eat them? And what animal do bananas make you think of?
Hello everyone. I’m Kathleen Pelley. Welcome to Journey with Story. Well, I imagine that some of you might have said you like to eat bananas with ice cream or maybe in a banana cream pie or even – for some of you, you might enjoy your banana in between two slices of bread as a banana sandwich. And some of you might have said you just like your banana pulled from a bunch and peeled. As for the animal that a banana makes you think of….well, did you say – Monkeys? Yes, of course, we all think of moneys right along with bananas. And today’s episode is a folktale from Brazil that tells us why that is so – why we think of bananas as belonging to monkeys.
A few shout outs before we begin – first – to the boys and girls at Edgebury Primary school in London where I recently did an author zoom visit to year group 3 – called the Peridot class, because Magnus and his brother Winston were the winners of our zoom author contest that we ran back in November last year. Thanks to Magnus and Winston and your dad Sean and your wonderful teacher, Mrs Dorking, who hosted out zoom visit. We had a wonderful time doing a Journey with Story Presentation based on my book the Giant King, and all the boys and girls were just a joy to be with and had lots of incredibly thought-provoking and interesting questions for me – like How many books have your read? I wasn’t able to answer that because I have read so many I have lost count!
Another shout out for a wee fellow by the name of Dylan, age 7, who lives in Galway, Ireland, as he sent me an amazing drawing of none other than St. Patrick himself – inspired by our St. Patrick’s Day episode. Thank you, Dylan – great job.
And to Gwynneth age 8 in CA, whose dad sent me her fabulous drawing from our Elephants and the Lake episode. Thank you Gwynnie and so happy to hear that you and your dad enjoy listening to this podcast
And a final shout out to Iris Crowe who sent me an enchanting drawing inspired from our episode How the Speckled Hen Got her Spots – thank you Iris for your masterpiece!
And of course, a big thank you to all of you who have been sending us your drawings inspired by our stories and those coloring sheets – remember you can sign up on our patreon page at www.journeywithstory.com to get your coloring sheets today.
Let’s take a journey with…
Why Bananas Belong to Monkeys.
Once upon a time when the world had just been made and there was only one kind of banana, but very many kinds of monkeys, there was a little old woman who had a big garden full of banana trees.
It was very difficult for the old woman to gather the bananas herself, so she made a bargain with the largest monkey. She told him that if he would gather the bunches of bananas for her she would give him half of them and so the monkey at once set about gathering the bananas.
Then he gave the little old woman the bananas from the bottom of the bunch – these were very small and wrinkled. The nice big fat ones at the top of the bunch, he kept for himself, and carried them home to let them ripen in the dark.
The little old woman was very angry. She lay awake all night trying to think of some way by which she could get even with the monkey. At last she thought of a trick.
The next morning she made an image of wax which looked just like a little boy. Then she placed a large flat basket on the top of the image’s head and in the basket she placed the best ripe bananas she could find. They certainly looked very tempting.
After a little while the biggest monkey passed that way. He saw the image of wax and thought that it was a boy peddling bananas. He had often pushed over boy banana peddlers, upset their baskets and then had run away with the bananas. This morning he was feeling very good-natured so he thought that he would first try asking politely for the bananas.
“O, peddler boy, peddler boy,” he said to him, “please give me a banana.” The image of wax answered never a word.
Again the monkey said, this time in a little louder voice, “O, peddler boy, peddler boy, please give me a banana, just one little, ripe little, sweet little banana.” The image of wax answered never a word.
Then the monkey called out in his loudest voice, “O, peddler boy, peddler boy, if you don’t give me a banana I’ll give you such a push that it will upset all of your bananas.” The image of wax was silent.
The monkey ran toward the image of wax and struck it hard with his hand. His hand remained firmly embedded in the wax.
“O, peddler boy, peddler boy, let go my hand,” the monkey called out. “Let go my hand and give me a banana or else I’ll give you a hard, hard blow with my other hand.” The image of wax did not let go.
The monkey gave the image a hard, hard blow with his other hand. The other hand remained firmly embedded in the wax.
Then the monkey called out, “O, peddler boy, peddler boy, let go my two hands. Let go my two hands and give me a banana or else I will give you a kick with my foot.” The image of wax did not let go.
The monkey gave the image a kick with his foot and his foot remained stuck fast in the wax.
“O, peddler boy, peddler boy,” the monkey cried, “let go my foot. Let go my two hands and my foot and give me a banana or else I’ll give you a kick with my other foot.” The image of wax did not let go.
Then the monkey who was now very angry, gave the image of wax a kick with his foot and his foot remained stuck fast in the wax.
The monkey shouted, “O, peddler boy, peddler boy, let go my foot. Let go my two feet and my two hands and give me a banana or else I’ll give you a push with my body.” The image of wax did not let go.
The monkey gave the image of wax a push with his body. His body remained caught fast in the wax.
“O, peddler boy, peddler boy,” the monkey shouted, “let go my body! Let go my body and my two feet and my two hands or I’ll call all the other monkeys to help me!” The image of wax did not let go.
Then the monkey made such an uproar with his cries and shouts that very soon monkeys came running from all directions. There were big monkeys and little monkeys and middle-sized monkeys. A whole army of monkeys had come to the aid of the biggest monkey.
It was the very littlest monkey who thought of a plan to help the biggest monkey out of his plight. The monkeys were to climb up into the biggest tree and pile themselves one on top of another until they made a pyramid of monkeys. The monkey with the very loudest voice of all was to be on top and he was to shout his very loudest to the sun and ask the sun to come and help the biggest monkey out of his dreadful difficulty.
This is what all the big-sized, little-sized, middle-sized monkeys did. The monkey with the loudest voice on top of the pyramid made the sun hear. The sun came at once.
The sun poured his hottest rays down upon the wax. After a while the wax began to melt. The monkey was at last able to pull out one of his hands. The sun poured down more of his hottest rays and soon the monkey was able to pull out his two hands. Then he could pull out one foot, then another, and in a little while his body, too. At last he was free.
When the little old woman saw what had happened she was very much discouraged about raising bananas. She decided to move to another part of the world where she raised cabbages instead of bananas. The monkeys were left in possession of the big garden full of banana trees. From that day to this the monkeys have thought that they own all the bananas.
Well, I don’t know about you, but I think I will remember this story now every time I eat a banana! And wasn’t it good to see that it was the littlest monkey who came up with the best plan to free the big monkey. Do you think that might be one of this story’s souvenirs –even though you may be little, you can still have big ideas and clever thoughts. That’s a good souvenir to keep in your heart as many of you go off now on your summer break from school.
A big thanks to all of you who have been rating, reviewing and sharing this podcast with others. Thanks to you we have been getting some lovely reviews like this one
This podcast makes my kids run to their bedroom for story time!
Oh, how I love to hear that – what a lovely image of children running off to bed so they can listen to these stories as they sail off to sleep.
If you haven’t already done so, please do take a moment to write a review for us. Thank you.
Cheerio then, join me next time for journey with story.
