Folk Story and Tall Story

In one of my teacher workshops this month, Teacher Ava discovered Tall Story by Candy Gourlay. She became an instant fan!

I make it a point that in every talk, seminar, forum, workshop I conduct, I do book talk sessions on the six National Children's Book Award Best Reads. Teacher Ava was immediately smitten as I talked about the problem of Bernardo, the main character in Tall Story.

It turned out that Teacher Ava is from Montalban, Rizal and that she is very familiar of the legend of Bernardo Carpio. She plans to buy a copy, have the book read by her and her kids and together, this summer, they will all go to Wawa River in Rizal where foot prints of the giant Bernardo Carpio are found.

She told me that folk from the area say that the river takes lives. Many who bathe or fall in the river were never seen again. I replied that perhaps, some vacuum of air and water sucks in bathers and river waders. But she said, that the mystery remains and that science has no space to explain this story.