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(Bilingual English-French edition / Edition bilingue anglais-français) In this amusing story, an old woman encounters an eagle for the first time. Perplexed by its unfamiliar appearance, she decides to change it to suit her own ideas of what a bird should look like. Her efforts mirror a common pattern of human thought: altering the unfamiliar to make it acceptable. This tale is specially presented for children by Afghan author Idries Shah, who, for more than 30 years, collected stories from the Sufi tradition and adapted them to contemporary Western culture. Told since ancient times throughout Central Asia and the Middle East, such tales are used to help foster greater mental flexibility and insight in people of all ages. The Old Woman and the Eagle is wonderfully illustrated by Natasha Delmar, who was taught to paint by her father, the celebrated classic Chinese painter Ng Yi-Ching.
Dans cette histoire amusante, une vieille femme rencontre un aigle pour la première fois. Perplexe devant son apparence peu familière, elle décide de le changer pour l'adapter à ses propres idées sur ce à quoi devrait ressembler un oiseau. Ses efforts reflètent un modèle commun de la pensée humaine : modifier l'inconnu pour le rendre acceptable. Ce conte est spécialement présenté aux enfants par l'auteur afghan Idries Shah, qui, pendant plus de 30 ans, a collecté des histoires de la tradition soufie et les a adaptées à la culture occidentale contemporaine. Racontés depuis l'Antiquité dans toute l'Asie centrale et le Moyen-Orient, ces récits sont utilisés pour aider à favoriser une plus grande flexibilité mentale et une plus grande perspicacité chez les personnes de tous âges. La vieille dame et l'aigle est magnifiquement illustré par Natasha Delmar, qui a appris à peindre par son père, le célèbre peintre chinois classique Ng Yi-Ching.
About the author
Idries Shah spent much of his life collecting and publishing Sufi classical narratives and teaching stories from oral and written sources in the Middle East and Central Asia. The tales he retold especially for children are published by Hoopoe Books in beautifully illustrated editions and have been widely commended - by Western educators and psychologists, the U.S. Library of Congress, National Public Radio and other media - for their unique ability to foster social-emotional development, thinking skills and perception in children and adults alike. Told for centuries, these stories express universal themes from the cultures that produced them, showing how much we have in common and can learn from each other. As noted by reviewers, such stories are more than just entertaining; familiarity with them provokes flexibility of thought, since each one contains levels of meaning that unfold in accordance with an individual's experience and understanding.
