Transcript
A (0:01)
Wbur podcasts boston.
B (0:13)
Hi, Rebecca Scheer here. If you're listening to this episode, the week it comes out, then you might know that Eric Shyamalonis and I are on the road as we bring Circle Round and the Circle Round Books to Cleveland, Ohio and Austin, Texas. We'll be back with the first of our live Cleveland episodes next week. In the meantime, enjoy this special encore edition of Circle Round, a fun and funny tale you may have missed the first time around. Think about a time you used teamwork. You did one part of a task, somebody else did the other. And by working together, by collaborating, you shared in your success. We're about to meet a team that works so well together, it's magic. I'm Rebecca Shear and welcome to Circle Round, where storytime happens all the time. Today our story is called the Laughing Canoe. It's inspired by tales told in Brazil, the largest country in South America and Latin America. Some really great people came together to bring you our adaptation of this folktale, including George Salazar from NBC's Superstore and the Broadway production of Be More Chill. So circle around everyone for the Laughing Canoe. There once was a fisherman. Each and every morning, with a fishing pole and two baskets, the fisherman made his way to the wide, winding river where his hand carved wooden canoe waited on the riverbank. The fisherman pushed off from shore, paddled to the middle of the river, then baited his hook and cast his line. After that, he waited. The moment he felt a tug, he rolled his line in, then proudly unhooked a wiggling, wriggling bass or catfish and tossed it into one of his baskets. This he would do again and again until both baskets were brimming with flipping, flopping fish. Then he would paddle the canoe back to shore and take his catch to market where he would sell the bass and catfish for two coppers apiece. But one day the fisherman didn't catch any fish. Not a one. For hours he drifted in his canoe waiting for a tug. But no tug came. So after returning to shore, the empty handed fisherman went home where his two sons greeted him with big smiles.
C (2:53)
Welcome back Daddy. How was today's catch? Did you hook a lot of fish and sell a lot at market?
B (3:00)
The fisherman heaved a sigh.
D (3:03)
I'm afraid not, my loves. The catfish and bass must have been sleeping. They simply refused to bite. But no use getting down, right? I'll try again tomorrow. Surely the fish will be awake by then.
B (3:20)
So the next morning, the fisherman grabbed his fishing pole and baskets and went to work. He paddled his canoe to the middle of the river, then baited his hook, cast his line, and waited and waited and waited. But the fish didn't bite. And for the second day in a row, the fisherman went home empty handed. Much to the fisherman's chagrin, the same thing happened the next day. And the next, and the next. By the seventh day, the fisherman was beside himself. And as he sat in his canoe, drifting on the water and waiting for that elusive tug, he finally broke down and cried.