Words of caution go unheeded in this somber nineteenth-century tale, written in 1829 for Alexei Tolstoi by his uncle.
A kind boy named Alyosha befriends a black hen at his St. Petersburg boarding school and ultimately saves it from the cook's knife. Blackey is actually an ambassador from an underground magical kingdom of little people, and in gratitude, its king richly rewards the child with a wish. But impulsively (and unwisely), the boy asks to know all the answers at school without having to study, thus beginning a downward spiral of events in which he becomes arrogant and betrays the little people's secret.
Though this is an unusual fable, and it might be difficult to imagine a child reading it, there is redemption and hope by the end, which students can understand, discuss, and ultimately appreciate.
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