The Nine Crying Dolls: A Story from Poland

by Anne Pellowski, Charles Mikolaycak (Illustrator)

After following the advice of an old woman known for her wisdom, a beleaguered young mother is finally able to quiet her crying infant--but then the rest of the town's babies start wailing

Genres: Poland, Folklore

31 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1980

Reviews

[Set · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a humorous story of a little baby that won't stop crying and the mother consults with a granny babka to get the baby to stop. It's an old wives tale from Poland with delightful images.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm interested in Polish folktales because of my Polish heritage. I found this one odd because I don't understand why the grandmother didn't just tell the woman to throw the dolls in the river in the first place. Why make her go through giving them to other people and causing them problems with their children, only to have it all come back to her? Unless the lesson was not to put your problems upon other people? It didn't quite make sense, but I did enjoy Charles Mikolaycak's illustrations.

[Tierra · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Nine Crying Dolls" retold by Anne Rellowski the perfect book to read to children because of the lesson learned at the end. A woman learned that she didn't enjoy passing her problems on to others because her problems would only get worst in the long run. So , she found a different way to approach her problems and everything worked out in the end.