About the Story.
This guide is part of the Values & Virtues library — a free collection of 400+ book guides and activities organized around 12 core virtues for children from pre-K to 6th grade. Each guide includes Guiding Questions designed to open a real conversation with your child in 10 minutes or less.
Have you ever read stories or seen movies about Medieval times in Europe when there were castles with moats, kings and queens, and knights in shining armor? Of course, you’re not going to run into a knight on a white horse at your local park, are you? So if you want to know about their lives you have to read about it or see a movie that shows what it was like to live 500 - 1,500 years ago.
We’re going to travel back to that time, and see what it was like when kings and queens and noblemen and women were in charge of everything. If you weren’t royalty, you’d be a tenant, leasing (renting) land on the lord’s manor, and supporting your family by farming. If you were lucky enough to be a part of a wealthy family, you might be trained to be a knight who was a kind of soldier of high ranking. Knights were supposed to be honorable, which means that they had to live by a code of honor: show bravery, skill and strength in battle, respect women, defend the weak and the poor, be generous to others, and loyal to your lord, your family and friends. But not all knights were this noble, as you will see in this story.
This is a story of three brothers, but mostly about the youngest, Felix, nicknamed by his brothers, “Blockhead” - not a very nice nickname. They embark on a journey to find someone who needs their help, to do a noble deed because that’s what knights did. Felix, longing for adventure, begs his brothers to take him along, and they reluctantly agree. On this trip, three important things happen. The first one is when they stop for lunch. As they eat, one brother notices a large anthill and starts to lift his leg to crush it. Felix protests, “Don’t kill those ants,they’re not hurting you!” The brother laughs at Felix, but decides not to crush the anthill.
As they ride through the forest, Felix notices a beehive hanging from a tree. He marvels at the hardworking bees bringing sacks of pollen in their tiny legs so honey could be made in the hive. Peter, one of the brothers, picks up a rock to throw at the hive and Felix grabs his arm just in time so the rock falls to the ground. Peter yells, “Fool! I wanted the honey inside.” But they keep going, even though angry smoke is coming out of Peter’s ears, just like in the comics!
Next they stop by a pond with ducks swimming in it. The brothers pull out their bows and arrows, ready to kill so they could roast and eat the ducks. But once again, Felix intervenes, shouting, “We already have plenty of food, Don’t kill them!” Then he distracts the brothers by shouting, “Look, it’s a castle, let’s go, someone may need our help.”
Outside the castle there are numerous statues of knights and horses - very strange. When the brothers knock on the door, they are greeted by a mute dwarf, who motions for them to enter. Because he can’t talk, he shows them a stone tablet that explains the predicament that had befallen the castle. This unfortunate castle is under a curse. In order for the curse to be lifted, three very difficult tasks need to be completed. Whoever tries to do these tasks and fails is turned into stone. That explains all the weird statues on the front lawn.
The oldest brother attempts task #1 which is to gather one thousand pearls in the forest that are from the broken necklaces of the Princesses who live in the castle. They had been playing there and carelessly broke the pearl necklaces. If even one pearl is missing, the knight will be turned to stone, which is what happens when the oldest brother is unable to collect all the pearls!
The middle brother attempts the task, fails and is turned to stone. Uh, oh! Is Felix going to succeed or will he be turned to stone, too? He is very nervous at first, but then something miraculous happens. You remember how he saved the ants in the beginning of the story? Well, the ant queen wants to do him a favor so she shows up and organizes her colony to fetch all the pearls, which they do very efficiently since ants are good at teamwork. The second task Felix faces is to retrieve a lost key at the bottom of the pond. The ducks he had saved help with that one. They easily dive down deep and fetch the key, handing it to Felix in their beaks. This key will open the door to the bedroom where the three Princesses lay in a cursed sleep.
Finally, the only way to rescue the Princesses and the knights and horses that had been turned into stone is to discover which Princess had eaten honey before being put to sleep. That shouldn’t be too hard, right? Wrong - because all three had eaten something sweet, and only one had the honey. Who comes along but the Queen Bee, whose hive had been rescued by Felix. She has a great sense of smell and immediately detects the smell of honey on the lips of one of the girls. This breaks the curse, and they all wake up. The knights and horses are alive again, and Felix saves the day! Of course his brothers are very grateful that Felix had shown such respect for the ants, the ducks and the bees. They no longer call him “Blockhead” and even ask his advice once in a while!
