From the Books of Nine Lives series by award-winning author, Pleasant DeSpain.

Every culture known to humankind has its fools, those well-meaning (yet bungling) folks who always manage to do the wrong thing, even though their hearts are in the right place. From stories of the fool, we learn how to avoid becoming one ourselves—as well as how to laugh at ourselves when the inevitable happens and we do something silly.

The ten stories collected here deal with fools from around the world, including: "The Silly Farmer" from Ethiopia, "The Extraordinary Cat" from China, "The Bear Who Said North" from Finland, and "The Proud Fox" from the United States.

Pleasant DeSpain is the author of numerous collections of multicultural stories, including the highly regarded Thirty-Three Multicultural Tales to Tell, Sweet Land of Story, and The Emerald Lizard. He has traveled all over the United States and the world, collecting stories to share with children and adults.