Pájaro Verde- Multicultural and International Literature

Pájaro Verde
The Green Bird
As told by: Joe Hayes


Many years ago, there lived a mother who had nine daughters. The oldest sister had nine eyes, the second had eight eyes, third had seven eyes, and so on. The youngest sister had only one eye. One day, the sister with two eyes, Mirabel, noticed a bright green bird singing a beautiful song. The bird asked Mirabel to marry him, and without hesitation she said yes. When she told her sisters, they all mocked her and laughed at her. Mirabel learned that the bird was named Prince Pájaro Verde. The prince took Mirabel to his castle that had nine rooms with nine windows. At nine o'clock the bird sang in every window. When he finished, he turned into a prince and the spent the night with his wife. This was a secret, and the prince gave her a potion to sprinkle on the bed of any visitor, so they would not learn about him. Mirabel's mother and sisters became suspicious of the Prince and the mother sent the sisters to spy on her. For every sister, she sprinkled the potion on their pillow, and they returned to the house with no information, except for the youngest. She discovered the Prince's secret and returned home to share it with the rest of the family. The next night, Prince Pájaro Verde became weaker and weaker until he could not sing at all. He was taken away from Mirabel by a black raven. She learned that her prince could not be cured unless she could find him and cover him with the blood of the little birds. When she found him he was at at the king's castle, Mirabel poured the blood over her dying husband, and he soon began to gain strength. The king built a castle for the Prince and Mirabel, and lived happily together. 


This book is a Spanish folk tale that I would use to help my students learn about the Spanish culture. In my classroom, I would read this book to my students as a read aloud. After we discussed the book, I would split the students into five groups. I would then give each group a different aspect of the book (setting, theme, characters, plot, and illustrations). Each group would be responsible for researching the Spanish culture and relating what they learned to the literary component that their group had. In other words, they will research to see how the Spanish culture influenced the setting, theme, characterization, plot, and illustrations of the book. The students will then "Jigsaw" and share with their peers from the other groups. This activity is an interesting way for the students to learn about another culture through studying the literary elements of a book.