A young man travels the world in order to find three people as foolish as the woman he wants to marry and her parents; who all, in the beginning, sat daydreaming about what to name the firstborn child while apple cider was flooding the cellar. ( )

A young man asks a young woman to marry him.To celebrate the engagement of her daughter, the mother of the young woman asks her to go down to the cellar for some sparkling cider. While watching the cider come out of the spigot into the pitcher, the young girl daydreams of what to name her first born. This cycle continues as her mother and father come down one by one to check on her. They eventually become so mesmerized by this thought that they do not realize that the cider has been overflowing the entire time. As her soon to be husband walks in, he says that they are so foolish and that he needs to travel. He plans to return only if he can find three fools as big as this family of three. Along his journey, he realizes that everyone makes mistakes and goes about situations in different ways by finding three very big fools. He returns to home and feels that he "might as well go back and get married."
The theme that seems to emerge here is that all humans seem to make foolish mistakes at times, but it is alright. Going through life without encountering a foolish mistake or making one on one's own seems next to impossible. Coming to this realization as soon as possible can only benefit the main character in this book as well as everyone. No one is perfect and to think so is foolish. ( )

This funny story shows the importance of taking the good with the bad. The main character is about to marry his love, but realizes her family is foolish. He sets off to find people more foolish than the family. When he realizes the family is not too bad. While I enjoyed this book, I wish it ended with the man coming back to find that his love has replaced him. Perhaps I am just bitter. ( )

“During her travels in the Gulf States in the 1930’s, Zora Neale Hurston recorded stories told by the people she met, to preserve their rich oral legacy. The Six Fools is one of the stories collected in Every Tongue Got to Confess, her third volume of folklore. It has been masterfully adapted for children by National Book Award winner Joyce Carol Thomas.”

The six fools is the story of a man who is about to marry a woman. While the family sits down to discuss matters, the woman is sent to go get cider from the basement. While waiting for the cider to fill the pitcher, she daydreams about what to name her future child. Soon the cider is pouring all over the floor. Each family member in turn goes down to see what’s taking so long and when he or she finds out the woman is thinking up baby names, they sit and think too. Finally the man comes down to find the whole family thinking while knee deep in cider and proclaims them fools. He says he is going traveling for a year and if he finds three fools as big as the family, then he’ll come back and get married. At the end of the year he has found three more fools and so comes back and gets married.

Although odd, I did like this story although I’d be interested in if preschoolers seem to like it.
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We picked up The Six Fools at the Library as part of our ongoing study of myth, folklore and legends...it's one of the few African American stories that my branch of the library has on the shelf and I'm glad I did. Here we have the story of a young man who becomes engaged and discovers that his fiancé and her parents are fools and so he decides that he's going to go out into the world and if he can find three fools bigger than them, he'll return to marry the daughter. The Six Fools is one of those rather surreal tales that doesn't really make much sense, but are a joy to read...filled with humor and images that will entertain children and adults alike. Does our young man find three fools and return to marry the girl...but of course, the world is full of fools, but you'll have to read to find out exactly how foolish the people he encounters are! A joy to read for adults and kids alike, I give The Six Fools four stars, both the text and the illustrations work well tighter in this story, recommended! ( )