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The Marvelous Fountain and Other Stories my Grandma Told Me
Metaphorical stories and parables result in an indirect language more effective than the direct
language of reason, affirms Carmen Filipi in a new book. In her literary work titled The marvelous
fountain and other stories my grandma told me, Filipi —a Phoenix educator with several decades of
experience in the school system— recovers and presents the oral tradition in which narrations
communicated and taught ethical, moral and civic values to children, mainly told by grandmothers and
other family members in the past.
“Teachers, social workers and parents notice a great emptiness in the civic, moral and ethical
development of today’s children,” explains Filipi, an elementary and music teacher for the Roosevelt
School District, in Phoenix. “We all agree that children desperately need a guide for such an education.
But how to do this without giving pretentious lectures or long-winded speeches about what they should
or should not do or creating new punishments to force them to change their behavior?” —questions the
author. Based on her extensive experience in working with hundreds of children, the author considers
that all these sermons, speeches and punishments seldom have an effect on children.
The marvelous fountain and other stories my grandma told me, is a bilingual book that Carmen Filipi
conceived based on her own experience. Having grown up in an isolated, remote military outpost in
the Paraguayan Chaco, near the border with Bolivia, Filipi spent her childhood with no TV, radio, toys
or books. Her only distraction was listening to stories told by her grandmother and other grandmothers
of the area. It was through these stories that Filipi learned many valuable lessons that guided and
enriched her life.
“More than entertaining me, the stories taught me. Their purpose was to teach children life lessons and
moral lessons of ethics, civics, and justice. Through these narrations we were taught how to be good
members of the community: honest, honorable, just and compassionate” —reflects Filipi about the
benefit these stories had in shaping her character. Her motivation in writing the book was to preserve
this tradition, as well as to deal with the social tendency in which the majority of grandmothers no
longer live close to their children or their children’s children. “Many mothers must work away from the
house to support their children —laments Filipi— and their children spend many hours in front of the
TV, playing videogames or on the street.”
The marvelous fountain and other stories my grandma told me is a children’s book that blends oral
tradition, the strength of the English and Spanish languages, and the beauty of digital art to illustrate it.
The author includes activities and suggestions for educators and parents. Published by the Arizona-
based Hispanic Institute of Social Issues, this literary work documents one of the most distinctive
cultural customs of Latin America, and contributes to fill the need for bilingual texts for schools,
institutions, and families who seek to not only teach moral values and character-building lessons, but
also to maintain the tradition.
Author: Carmen Filipi
Illustrator: Dave Long
Título: The marvelous fountain and other stories my grandma told me
Pages: 55
Illustrations: 5, color
LanguageL Bilingual; English/Spanish
ISBN: 13: 978-0-9797814-0-7
Price: $12.95 + 3.99 s/h (add $1.00 s/h fee per each additional book purchased.)
To receive more information or to order this book by mail, call 480 - 983-1445
Personal checks or Money Orders must be made payable to:
HISI
PO Box 50553
Mesa, Arizona 85208-0028
Metaphorical stories and parables result in an indirect language more effective than the direct
language of reason, affirms Carmen Filipi in a new book. In her literary work titled The marvelous
fountain and other stories my grandma told me, Filipi —a Phoenix educator with several decades of
experience in the school system— recovers and presents the oral tradition in which narrations
communicated and taught ethical, moral and civic values to children, mainly told by grandmothers and
other family members in the past.
“Teachers, social workers and parents notice a great emptiness in the civic, moral and ethical
development of today’s children,” explains Filipi, an elementary and music teacher for the Roosevelt
School District, in Phoenix. “We all agree that children desperately need a guide for such an education.
But how to do this without giving pretentious lectures or long-winded speeches about what they should
or should not do or creating new punishments to force them to change their behavior?” —questions the
author. Based on her extensive experience in working with hundreds of children, the author considers
that all these sermons, speeches and punishments seldom have an effect on children.
The marvelous fountain and other stories my grandma told me, is a bilingual book that Carmen Filipi
conceived based on her own experience. Having grown up in an isolated, remote military outpost in
the Paraguayan Chaco, near the border with Bolivia, Filipi spent her childhood with no TV, radio, toys
or books. Her only distraction was listening to stories told by her grandmother and other grandmothers
of the area. It was through these stories that Filipi learned many valuable lessons that guided and
enriched her life.
“More than entertaining me, the stories taught me. Their purpose was to teach children life lessons and
moral lessons of ethics, civics, and justice. Through these narrations we were taught how to be good
members of the community: honest, honorable, just and compassionate” —reflects Filipi about the
benefit these stories had in shaping her character. Her motivation in writing the book was to preserve
this tradition, as well as to deal with the social tendency in which the majority of grandmothers no
longer live close to their children or their children’s children. “Many mothers must work away from the
house to support their children —laments Filipi— and their children spend many hours in front of the
TV, playing videogames or on the street.”
The marvelous fountain and other stories my grandma told me is a children’s book that blends oral
tradition, the strength of the English and Spanish languages, and the beauty of digital art to illustrate it.
The author includes activities and suggestions for educators and parents. Published by the Arizona-
based Hispanic Institute of Social Issues, this literary work documents one of the most distinctive
cultural customs of Latin America, and contributes to fill the need for bilingual texts for schools,
institutions, and families who seek to not only teach moral values and character-building lessons, but
also to maintain the tradition.
Author: Carmen Filipi
Illustrator: Dave Long
Título: The marvelous fountain and other stories my grandma told me
Pages: 55
Illustrations: 5, color
LanguageL Bilingual; English/Spanish
ISBN: 13: 978-0-9797814-0-7
Price: $12.95 + 3.99 s/h (add $1.00 s/h fee per each additional book purchased.)
To receive more information or to order this book by mail, call 480 - 983-1445
Personal checks or Money Orders must be made payable to:
HISI
PO Box 50553
Mesa, Arizona 85208-0028
