Reading Diary A: Fables of La Fontaine

Fables of La Fontaine

Foolish Animals (Larned)

From Blog: The Hare and the Tortoise

I absolutely love this story! I remember reading it as a kid and thought it was the best. This story is the traditional the Hare and the Tortoise racing tale. This story also reminds me of the cartoon Franklin. The Tortoise is such a great character. She also throws shade at the Hare in the end. I will most likely choose this story to write about this week. 

Extra Reading Diary: Welsh Fairy Tales (Emerson)

Welsh Fairy Tales (Emerson)

Crows

Wikimedia: Crows In England

This story starts out as naming different numbers of crows and what they mean. I chose an image with two crows because in the story that gives good luck.

The story is about a young married man who had been on the sea for many years. 

It's basically about him having bad dreams. In the end of the story he died.

Reading Diary B: Celtic Fairy Tales

Celtic Fairy Tales

From Blog

The Tale of Ivan

It starts out with a wife and husband. Work is hard to find so the husband leaves to find work. The man refused to give Ivan the money her earned, instead he got advice. This went on and on for three years. This was such a great story! I'm glad I stuck with it. The husband did exactly what his old master had told him and everything worked out. He got his money, a new job, and stayed with his wife. 

Reading Diary A: Celtic Fairy Tales

Celtic Fairy Tales

The Horned Women

From Blog

This story is about a bunch of horned witches. Twelve witches came into a mistress' home. They put a spell on her so she couldn't do anything. A witch ordered her to make them a cake. A well spirit helped her get rid of the witches. The spirit well also helped the mistress keep the witches out of her house. It's a basic story, but it would be really fun to write about.

Reading Diary A: Nursery Rhymes

Nursery Rhymes

Tales

From Blog

The first nursery rhyme was about the man on the moon coming down to earth. These nursery rhymes are a little different. 

My favorite out of all of theses is about Old Mother Goose. Mother Goose was one of my favorite nursery rhymes growing up. 

Reading Diary B: Tejas Legends

Tejas Legends

When the Rainbow Was Torn

From Blog

So this story is about a rainbow that was split into. It got hung up on some flower thorns and then ripped away. I won't be choosing this as my story this week.

Reading Diary A: Tejas Legends

Tejas Legends

When the Storm God Rides

Image from Blog

This was an awesome story! It was about a god that road a thunder bird. The indians were terrified when this happened. This story was basically about a hurricane like storm. It also talks about different islands created by the god to protect birds. I will probably write about this story this week. 

Extra Reading Diary: Myths of the Cherokee

Myths of the Cherokee

How The World Was Made

Mother Earth

I really like this story. I absolutely love reading how other cultures believe we were all created. I should have picked this unit for this week. This whole story was just how the earth was an island floating on the water, but the animals wanted more and more space. Soon the earth had more space for animals and men to roam and then it was turned into the earth we know and love today.

The Journey To The Sunrise

So this story is about some men who wanted to know where the Sun went at night to live. So they found this rock thing that the sun lived in. One of the men tried going through the door, but was crushed by a rock. The other men were too afraid to try so they walked back home. They traveled so far and long that they were old and wrinkly when they got back to their home. 

Reading Diary B: American Indian Fairy Tales

The Boy who Snared the Sun

A mural depicting Tawa, the Sun Spirit and Creator in Hopi mythology.

This story starts out during the cold winter. A moose comes up and this guy was going to kill it, but this other person tells him not to. Iagoo goes into a story about how moose used to be way greater. People didn't eat animals, they only ate fruits and veggies. There were more animals than there were men. 

This little man that didn't grow past three feet decided to catch the sun. He did and the sun stopped rising and the animals had no clue what was happening. 

The animals couldn't figure out how to free the sun. 

Finally they came up with a plan to free the sun, but the animal that did was turned into a pile of ashes. 

Reading Diary A: American Indian Fairy Tales

Iagoo, the Story-Teller

From Blog

This would be a great little intro to use for storytelling. Iagoo is a storyteller that all the children love. He knows all the great stories of the indians. The way it was written, it sounds like Iagoo passes down not only stories, but life lessons to all the children. 

Shin-ge-bis Fools the North Wind

This story starts out with the battling forces of the North Wind versus the South Wind. The North wind wanted everything cold and dead, but it was no match for the South Wind, which breathed life into the living. 

Some fishermen were out fishing up north in the summer, and the North Wind started to show up. They had to leave but Shin-ge-bis kept laughing strangely and wouldn't leave. Could North Wind have put his magic on this guy? This would be a great story to build on. 

reading Diary A: South African Folktales

South African Folktales

The Lost Message

Anteater

So this story is about how ants came together to find a place to retreat when they are being attacked. The story says the ants have many enemies since they are small and destructive. 

When they held a meeting, there were many different types of ants to talk about the problems they face.

Basically the story is about how all these different ants couldn't come to one agreement so they separated and did their own thing. 

The king of the insects heard that their ideas weren't working so he sent a beetle to tell them the secret of unity. The beetle never arrived so they still have no clue what they are doing. 

The Story of a Dam

So the story starts out with a great drought throughout the land. The lion summons different animals to see if they could find a way to collect precious water. So basically these animals that worked so hard to create this dam didn't take care of it. 

I think I will try to combine these two stories. 

Extra Readin Diary: Brothers Grimm (Crane)

Snow White

Snow White

I absolutely love the Brother's Grimm! I always thought this story was creepy, even the Disney version, but this one is way creepier. I would really like to turn this story into my own. Maybe the next time we get to pick a theme, I'll go with this. It is such a classic story with a great theme. There is so much to work with as well. 

Reading Diary B: West African Folktales

The Moon and Stars

Moon and Stars

A lack of food is a main theme throughout these stories. Also father Anansi the spider from the first story is also in all of these stories.

There is also someone trying to tick someone else out of food or wealth. This story involves a dragon trying to gather the food.

Father Anansi was curious about this dragon that his son had seen. 

In the end the evil dragon looses and Anansi became the moon.

Reading Diary A:West African Folktales

How We Got the Name "Spider Tales"

Lizard eating spider

The spider in this story was very jealous that all the stories told were about Nyankupon, the chief of Gods. He wanted people to hear his stories.

He had to bring the chief of Gods three items for his wish to come true. 

He tricked the bees, a snake, and a tiger into going to the chief. Nyankupon was very surprised by the spider's smarts, so he allowed all old tales to be called Anansi tales. 

Tit For Tat

This story involves Anansi again. He follows his son to where all the animals live. There is a great famine and people can't afford to buy meat. 

The father, Anansi, was very selfish, but his son had outsmarted him. He was able to trick his father and become very rich selling the meat his father caught. 

In the end, Anansi promised to stop his evil tricks, but it didn't last very long. 

Extra Reading Diary: Jamaica Anansi Stories

Jamaica Anansi Stories

Tying Tiger

This was very interesting to read. The language was a little difficult to follow, but overall was a pretty cool story of a Tiger and his mango tree!Basically the thing I got out of the story was that the tiger was tied to his tree and needed help getting untied... I think.

New Names

So in this story, four friends change their name and if their mother's call them by their old name they must eat their mothers. That's what I got out of the first chapter. I don't really understand the point of this story either. I should have probably picked a different unit to read, but I must say it is interesting to read other culture's stories. It's like trying to solve a puzzle! 

Reading Diary B: Folklore of the Holy Land: Moslem, Christian and Jewish

Solomon

Solomon and the animals

So this story is about a King named Solomon. The names were a little weird to read. Apparently Solomon could speak the language of the plants. That could be a fun little back story on how he got that power. A plant has told Solomon that all of his work would be destroyed. I really didn't understand this story all that much. I won't be choosing this story to rewrite.  

Reading Diary A: Folklore of the Holy Land: Moslem, Christian and Jewish

Folklore of the Holy Land: Moslem, Christian and Jewish

Islamic Art: Adam and Eve

Our Father Adam

I chose this unit because it is tied to all three monotheistic religions. I love comparing and contrasting all three. People fight and die over religion, but I find it interesting that all three have way more in common than they would like to admit. I like how this version says that Adam was made with different soils from around the world which created different "colours" of men and women around the world. I thought it was different that Adam and Eve were one body and then Eve decided to be her own woman. Overall I like this story. It was a little different than what I have read in the past but still had the same plot.

Noah

This story is basically the same as the story in the bible that I grew up reading. This version also included a giant like the version I read last week. It was a little more sinister than the version I would read when I was little.

                                        

Extra Reading Diary: Eskimo Folk Tales

Eskimo Folk Tales

Eskimos

The Coming of Men, A Long, Long While Ago

I love to read how other cultures think the earth was formed. I like how they incorporate the Eskimo's dogs in the story too. It is very interesting that they didn't have death and they could also burn water. I thought it was interesting how they believe that the sky is shining with stars because the dead leave the earth and shine brightly. 

The Insects that Wooed a Wifeless Man

This is kind of a creepy story. It's sad that the girls cheered when the wifeless man didn't come back home. I'll be honest, I didn't really understand what was going on during this story. Like I understand the plot but there were some stuff that went over my head. 

Reading Diary B: Arabian Nights

Arabian Nights

Genie from Aladdin

Aladdin & The Wonderful Lamp

I absolutely love this part of the story. Growing up as a Disney kid, this was one of my favorite movies to watch. I'm excited to see how similar and different the two are.

This story is a little more sinister than the disney version so far. 

I like how the plot line has some similarities to a classic Disney movie, but I could spin this classic tale around into something even more fun and playful!

I like how he uses the genie to transport the princesses to his house instead of riding the "magic carpet". That thing always freaked me out a little. 

I think I will choose this story to rewrite. It has a really good plot line that would be easy to change and manipulate into the third chapter of my ongoing chronicles of the Barn Yard Continent. 

Reading Diary A: Arabian Nights

Arabian Nights

Scheherazade

Scheherazade

I absolutely love this story! I did a presentation on Scheherazade the musical piece Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov last semester. This story gives a great plot line to really work your imagination and run wild with different plot lines. It's a tragic that's not tragic. I really love the whole story and I love the pice that Korsakov composed for it.

The Merchant and the Genius

The Merchant and the Genius

I like this story because it is the building block of Scheherazade's whole story that allows her to live through the next day. It's a story within a story, and I always love reading and writing stories like that. This is just a great plot to build off of and write a very fun and entertaining story!