King Midas and the Golden Touch

Written By: Charlotte Craft

Illustrated By: K.Y Craft

Grade: 4

Traditional Literature

 

            Have you ever loved something so much that you would do anything to have it? I feel most people have and so has king Midas. What would you wish for if you had all of the money in the world? King Midas wished for something that ended up ruining his life and took his daughter from him.  

He was a very rich king with an insatiable love for gold, roses and most of all his amazingly beautiful Aurelia. The wealthy king loved to see his daughter happy and every morning she would pick him the most beautiful bouquet from the garden. In the garden is where they found a poor old man, Instead of turning him away because he was trespassing; he invited him into his home. Midas gave the man as much food as he needed and a bed to rest, the man left Midas the very next day.  One day after breakfast with Aurelia he crept down to his dungeon where he stored his chest full of gold. While he was down marveling his gold and confessing his love of his prized possession some mysterious man came to him as if in a dream. The mysterious man asked Midas if he recognized him, he was the man from the garden and to repay the king for his kindness he offered the king anything he wanted. Seeing as the king had everything he wished for more gold, he wanted so everything he touched turned to gold. This ghost like man granted this wish for Midas. When the king awoke the next day he was elated to see the gift was real and everything he touched turned to gold. To surprise his daughter he snuck outside to preserve the roses in a casing of gold; he wanted their beauty to last for a lifetime. Once he joined his daughter for breakfast it became known to him he can no longer eat. Everything he touched turned to gold in his mouth. When Aurelia saw that Midas was upset she went to comfort her father and the moment she hugged him she was frozen in a casing of gold. Midas was in agony; he did not wish for this gift any longer to him it has become a curse. The magical man reappeared to him telling him how to rid himself of this torture. He was to bathe in a river and take the water from the river to return to his kingdom. Anything that he wanted restored to its original state he must sprinkle the item with this magical river water, and that’s what he did. Midas’ life was restored to normal and all of his beloved things were now safe again.

            This book is great and it fulfills the myth section of the common core that falls within traditional literature. The Illustrations are so elaborate and detailed that they play off of the story so well. The pictures are so important within the book that whole pages are dedicated to them without any work distraction. The book uses some old English that most students would never see within stories that are written more recently. The main character begins as very naive and later becomes very brave and willing to give up all of his fortunes to have his daughter back. The plot in this book is very easy to follow having one basic story, and the issue or conflict was identified very early. The conflict was solved thus ending the book which is very common among traditional lit books. We don’t really know what time the story was supposed to be set in but guesses can be drawn that it was times of the kings and it didn’t happen in a time that was close to this one.

As a teacher I would this story to fulfill the myth requirement within the common core. I would go over the common characteristics that make a traditional lit story. Then I would read the story along with the class and have the students pull out the different aspects of this story that make it traditional lit.    

 

RL 9. Compare and contrast the treatment of similar themes and topics (e.g., opposition of good and evil) and patterns of events (e.g., the quest) in stories, myths, and traditional literature from different cultures.