By Ellen Gold. Based on information in the book, Maglipay Universalist, by Fred Muir (Annapolis, Maryland: Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis, 2001) and a 2002 review of Muir's book by Rosemary Bray McNatt in UU World magazine. I bet some of you love to read. Maybe you have a favorite book.

Adapted from multiple sources including a 2005 article, "Mrs. Mott, 'The Celebrated Female Physician,'" in Historic New England online magazine. Harriot Kezia Hunt, 1805-1875, was barred from medical study at Harvard College because male students objected to her presence....

Adapted from an Aesop's fable. Once upon a time, an old woman lived on a beautiful farm in the country. From her window, she could see pasture land, fields of grain, barns filled with animals, orchards and forests beyond. The farm was special to the old woman because it had been in her family for...

Reprinted from A Lamp in Every Corner: Our Unitarian Universalist Storybook (Boston: Unitarian Universalist Association, 2004). When Olympia Brown was little, girls weren't supposed to whistle. Girls weren't supposed to climb trees or run fast or catch frogs. But Olympia did; she did all those...

A Jataka Tale from India. Martin, Rafe. The Hungry Tigress: Buddhist Myths, Legends, and Jataka Tales (Somerville, MA: Yellow Moon Press, 1999). Reprinted with the permission of the author. www.rafemartin.comOnce, long ago, the Buddha was born as a little parrot. One day, a storm broke upon her...

Stories adapted from the Giraffe Heroes Project website John Holland McCowan John Holland-McCowan was five years old when he first announced that he wanted to help kids who were in need. He saved up his allowance and bought some toys for kids who were living in a shelter. When he dropped off the...

Adapted, with permission, from “The Heartless King,” an Indian folk tale adapted by Sophia Fahs in From Long Ago and Many Lands, second edition, by Sophia Fahs and Patricia Hoertdoerfer and illustrated by Cyrus Leroy Baldridge (Boston: Skinner House Books, 1995). Once upon a time there lived a...

Adapted from a Thai folk tale. Once upon a time, a queen sat on her balcony eating rice cakes and honey with her chief advisor. As they ate, they gazed down at the busy street below. The Queen pointed to something in the distance, and as she did a drop of honey from her rice cake landed on the...

Adapted from an Indian folk tale. There was once a wise woman who lived by herself near a small village. Rumor had it that she could always accurately predict when the rains would come, or help heal a sick child with herbs, or calm angry neighbors and help them to resolve their fights and arguments.

A true story. The mosquitoes in Borneo were terrible. On bad days, the people of Borneo would be covered in mosquito bites. (Leader — Ask, "And what do you suppose would happen?" Wait for someone to suggest that it would itch and people would scratch / make the bites bleed.) That's right — those...

Adapted from a historical Islamic tale. Uthman ibn Affan was one of the very first followers of the prophet Muhammad, who started the Muslim religion. He was a very wealthy man who was known far and wide for his generosity....

Adapted from a Middle Eastern Islamic folk tale which is attributed to different countries, including Turkey and Syria.Mullah Nasruddin had been working in the fields all day long. He was tired and sweaty and his clothes and shoes were covered with mud and stains....

Adapted from a story by Malba Tahan (pen name for Julio Cesar de Mello e Souza, 1895-1975), a mathematician from Brazil who also wrote The Man Who Counted (Editoria Record, 2001), which was first published in Brazil in 1949.Once, two friends named Mussa and Nagib made a journey through the mounta...

Adapted from a Scottish folktale in The Fairy Mythology by Thomas Keightley (George Bell & Sons, 1882).Long ago in Scotland there was a small fishing village that stood at the edge of the sea....

A Jewish tale from Afghanistan. Once, on a summer night in the country Afghanistan, the ruler Shah Abbis changed out of his fancy robes and left his palace dressed as a peasant to enjoy the evening air and to wander through the streets unnoticed. He walked and walked until he reached the poorest...

This story is inspired by a true story, reported in the New York Times on May 10, 1987, about a Manhattan community that joined together to build a neighborhood playground designed by local schoolchildren. The article,...

Read or tell the story. Once upon a time a girl named Maya was playing in her front yard with her big sister and some of her sister's friends, while her father watched from the kitchen window. Soon Maya's friend Annie came along and wanted to join in the game. Maya's big sister and her friends...

A story from A Lamp in Every Corner: Our Unitarian Universalist Storybook (Boston: Unitarian Universalist Association, 2004). Read or tell the story....

A story from A Lamp in Every Corner: Our Unitarian Universalist Storybook (Boston: Unitarian Universalist Association, 2004). Read or tell the story. There once was a farm in a valley that was practically perfect in every way, except that it had no rooster to crow at the crack of dawn, and so...

The story, "The Bremen Town Musicians," was told by the brothers Grimm in Germany, in the early 1800s. This session comes from Gail Forsyth-Vail's book, Stories In Faith: Exploring Our Unitarian Universalist Principles and Sources Through Wisdom Tales (Boston: Unitarian Universalist Association,...