The Tower to the Moon

Super Great Kids' Stories

In this episode of Super Great Kids Stories, host Kim introduces a folktale from the Dominican Republic told by Juliana Marin. The story follows a greedy king

Key takeaways

• The king executes his advisor, chief engineer, and professor for disagreeing with his moon-conquering plan.
• A greedy boy suggests building a tower of boxes in exchange for coconut candy.
• To acquire more boxes, the king orders the cutting down of all coconut palm trees, destroying the island's shade and food source.
• The king dismantles all fishing boats to use the wood for boxes, leaving fishermen without livelihoods.
• The tower reaches the moon but remains out of reach, prompting the removal of a base box which causes the collapse.

Main topics

• Folklore from the Dominican Republic
• Consequences of greed
• Environmental destruction

Notable quotes

I want to conquer the moon.

Conclusion

A cautionary tale that illustrates how unchecked greed can destroy a c

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:13) Hello and welcome to Super Great Kids Stories. Wise tales from storytellers around the world which will make you laugh and sometimes cry. Recommended for ages 5 to 105. I'm Kim and I love stories. This week, we have a story from the Dominican Republic, a country in the Caribbean. It's told by Juliana, the travelling storyteller from Colombia. The story is about a greedy king who wants to capture the moon so he can include it as part of his kingdom. Is it a good idea to try and steal the moon? No, of course not. You know that and I know that. But you know how foolish kings can be. I hope you're enjoying school, super great kids, and making friends, and trying new things, and learning lots of fun facts. I wonder if you've tried telling any stories or jokes yet. Oh, here's a joke. Why did the fly fly? Because the spider spied her. Speaker 1 (1:26) Why don't you try to remember a joke or think of a story that you'd like to tell? Have a go now while we have a quick word with the grown-ups. Ready? Off you go. Speaker 1 (1:44) Hello, super great kids, I'm back. Could you remember any jokes? How about this one? What do crocodiles like playing? Swallow the leader. Right, are you ready for this week's story? Then let's give a very warm welcome to storyteller, Julianna Marine. Speaker 2 (2:05) Hola, I'm Juliana, also known as Achida the Traveling Storyteller. I'm from Colombia in South America, but I travel all over the world telling stories. and looking for stories. And one of the stories that I found comes from an island nation in the Caribbean Sea called the Dominican Republic. It's a beautiful country, and one of the things that I loved the most about it was how friendly everybody there is. For example, whenever I would get on a bus, everybody on the bus would say, buenos dias, good morning, to me. And then when I would get off, everybody would say, Hasta luego. Feliz dia. Bye bye. Have a great day. Of course, I started saying hello and goodbye and smiling at everybody too. However, not everybody in the Dominican Republic has always been friendly. In fact, a long time ago, everybody in the country was sad. Do you want to hear why? All right, then. I'll tell you the story. I say creak, you say crack. Creak, crack, creak, crack. Speaker 2 (3:28) Once upon a time, long, long, long ago, on the island of the Dominican Republic was a king. A mean, grumpy king, who looked at the beautiful white sand beaches and all the fishing boats far at sea, who saw the gorgeous coconut palm trees swaying in the wind, who saw all the people selling their baskets of fruit, and decided, Speaker 1 (3:54) not enough. I want more. Speaker 2 (4:00) But what Speaker 1 (4:00) else could Speaker 2 (4:01) he conquer? He had already conquered the entire island, and around the island was just water. You can't conquer water, can you? And so the king looked up at the sky, and he saw the great, beautiful full moon shining down over the waves. Arr, Speaker 1 (4:22) said the king. I want Speaker 2 (4:25) to conquer the moon. And so he called his advisor, woke him up in the middle of the night. Speaker 1 (4:31) I want to conquer the moon. Tell me how I can get there so I can conquer it. Speaker 2 (4:38) Now the advisor was used to the king coming up with some crazy ideas, but this was definitely the craziest idea he had ever heard. Speaker 1 (4:47) What? said the advisor. Speaker 2 (4:50) Conquer the moon? That's ridiculous. Speaker 1 (4:56) said the king. Off with his head. Speaker 2 (4:59) And suddenly, the king didn't have an advisor anymore. Nobody to give him good advice. But the king still wanted to conquer the moon, and he didn't know how to get there. So he called up his chief engineer. Speaker 1 (5:13) I want to conquer the moon. Tell me how I can build a road to get to the moon. Speaker 2 (5:20) Now, the chief engineer stayed watching the king for a little while, waiting to see if the king was joking. But when he saw that the king was actually serious, the chief engineer, Your Majesty, he said as politely as possible. I'm terribly sorry, but that is impossible. You can't just build a road to the moon. You can't do it. Urgh, said the king. Speaker 1 (5:49) Off with his head. Speaker 2 (5:51) And suddenly, the king didn't have a chief engineer anymore. Anybody to tell him that something was built well or badly. But he still wanted to conquer the moon, and he didn't know how to get there. So the king called up the chief professor, the teacher who was in charge of all the schools on the island. Speaker 1 (6:10) I want to conquer the moon. Tell me how to get there so I can conquer it. Speaker 2 (6:16) The Speaker 1 (6:16) professor Speaker 2 (6:17) stared at the king, and she was very smart, and she understood that the king didn't like being told that his ideas were silly or that they couldn't be done. And so she decided to try to reason with him instead and show him why this idea was not right. Your Majesty, she said, nothing is impossible, and it's always good to be ambitious. I'm sure there must be some way to reach the moon. But Your Majesty, it's going to be expensive. Very expensive. And there are still children in your kingdom