Seven Blind Mice: 09/16/07

The last few months, Sean has been raving about Seven Blind Mice and how much he likes the different ways the mice "saw" the elephant. Recently he borrowed it from school to read it to me and I enjoyed it too.

Seven Blind Mice retells the story of the three blind men who mistake an elephant for a tree, a snake and a rope. There are apparently numerous versions of the story throughout history as it's a perfect way to explain the danger of misconceptions. Ed Young's version seems to follow most closely a Buddhist rendering of the tale which involves nine interpretations of the elephant.

In Ed Young's colorful version, each mouse (represented by a different color) has a go at examining the elephant. They come up with ideas such as: a fan, a pillar, a snake, a shovel, a cliff and and so forth. It's not until the white mouse stops to think about what the others has described that he's able to put the pieces together and come up with "elephant."

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