The stuff of folktales

Whoever thought smelling a freshly baked cookie or cake could thrust you into legal troubles? It did for Zena, a poor woman living in a small village. Her neighbor Mordecai, the baker of such confections, likened the fact that Zena was in nose shot of his goodies to theft and demanded she pay what little she had in return for inhaling the sweet smells. A court case ensued and, in the end, the judge dished a sentence just as absurd as the baker`s charges. Given the torrent of frivolous lawsuits filed these days, Zena`s story isn`t that unlikely. But thank goodness it`s not true. The story is actually the brainchild of Amy Friedman, a noted newspaper columnist turned children`s author, who recently visited Hawken`s Lower Schoolers to read excerpts from her collection of folktales and myths entitled Tell Me a Story. The book, adapted into a CD version, features actors from Broadway to the silver screen. Likewise, Friedman enlisted the help of resident student actors in the audience to tell her tales during the afternoon of wicked coyotes, selfish spiders and fearless raccoons.