Bookworm of Gensan Recommends: Alamat ng Butiki - Perfect book for kids on Mother's Day

Written in both Filipino and English by Rene O. Villanueva, the Alamat ng Butiki (The Legend of the House Lizard) is a retelling of the story of how a son was turned into a house lizard.

Villanueva's version echoes the legend I read as a child.

There was the hunchback son who fell in love with the town's loveliest woman. The woman spurned his affections and went for a handsome fellow.

In blind jealousy, he killed his rival and landed in prison. When the woman went to the prison to confront him, the hunchback pleaded for her to consider his love.
In desperation, the woman dared him to bring her his mother's heart. Fueled by renewed hope, the hunchback bolted from prison and went home to his mother. The mother was very glad to see her son. She prepared dinner for him.

And the hunchbacked son saw the knife on the kitchen table and did the inevitable deed.


As he rushed away from their home with his mother's heart in hand, he fell. That's when the heart spoke to him: "Were you hurt, my beloved son?"

The prison guards caught up with him and just when they were about to arrest him, a lightning struck the hunchback. And he disappeared! And from that time on, nobody saw him again.

However, every twilight, a small creature could be seen kissing the ground. This animal was the hunchback transformed into a house lizard. As dark approached, it would kiss the ground to atone for the greatest sin he did to his mother.

(Available at National Book Store)