Tag Archives: Demi

Bedtime Stories: King Midas: the Golden Touch

Post by Mark T. Locker.

King Midas: the Golden Touch by Demi

Today’s bedtime story comes to us from the lands of ancient Greece and from the skilled hands of Demi, who has authored and illustrated loads of great books, most, if not all, are either biographies of spiritual leaders, (Muhammad, St. Francis, Rumi, etc.) or retellings of folklore from around the globe. We grabbed one of the latter on our most recent trip to the library, the story of King Midas.

I thought I knew the story pretty well: Midas made Apollo (or someone) happy and they granted him a wish. As we all know, the foolish king wished for the golden touch. I never realized that this was just the end of the story! Turns out that FIRST Midas angered Apollo, who gave him donkey’s ears. (I had thought that was part of a Grimms’ fairy tale.) And the LATER he please Dionysus, who granted him the fateful wish.

Anyways, if you haven’t been exposed to Demi, she does really great retellings of tales, both well-known and obscure. In King Midas, she does a great job of mirroring the style of ancient Greek imagery. It’s not too short and not too long and a story which is sure to captivate kids. Imagine turning your child to gold on accident! Whoopsy!

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