Reading Notes, Brothers Grimm, Librivox, Part A

(Disney's Aurora/Briar Rose, Link)

As the final extra credit reading notes in this class,  I decided to finish reading all the stories written by the Brothers Grimm. This was honestly probably my favorite section of the Grimm Brothers just because it contained most of the stories we all know, and I like seeing how these originals differ from the Disney version or storybook versions. Of course my favorite one in this section is Briar Rose. The only thing that I could really tell that was different between the two was the curse. In the Disney version it was said that Briar Rose would remain cursed until true loves kiss, but in this version Briar was only cursed for one hundred years. In this version the prince that rescues her still kisses her but it is just as she is waking up. But regardless, the Disney version of this story stayed pretty close to the original written by the Grimm Brothers.

Bibliography: Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm Link

Reading Notes, Hans Christian Anderson, Part A

(The Princess and the Pea Link)

I was originally attracted to this unit because in the description it said he was one of the authors of the Little Mermaid. However, I figure I will do another extra credit reading note on just that story as it is in the second part. The first part consists of stories somewhat widely known such as the Emperors New Suit and the Princess and the Pea. The latter was one of my favorite stories growing up. There was once a prince who wanted to marry a true princess. He searched the world many times but was never able to find one who was a real princess. One day a girl knocked on the gates of the palace claiming to be a real princess. The prince decided to test it. He put a pea beneath 28 mattresses that the princess was to sleep on. The next morning, when asked how she slept, the princess replied, "Oh, very badly! I have scarcely closed my eyes all night. Heaven only knows what was in the bed, but I was lying on something hard, so that I am black and blue all over my body. It's horrible!" The prince determined no one but a real princess could be that sensitive so he married her.

Bibliography: Fairy Tales and Stories by Hans Christian Anderson and translated by H.P Paull Link

Reading Notes, Jacobs Fairy Tales, Part A

As some extra credit I decided to continue with the European unit so I chose Jacobs fairy tales. I loved reading these because they put twists on classic stories that we have heard our entire lives. I love all the Disney princess stories so my favorite in this collection would definitely have to be Beauty and the Beast. This story differed from the Disney version in a couple of ways. The first is how the youngest daughter (or Belle in the Disney version) came to be with the beast. In this version her father was caught stealing from the beast's garden so to avoid death, he told the beast he would bring his youngest daughter back. Something else that differed is the servants. In the Disney version they were ordinary people who were transformed into objects but in this version, they are just described as invisible hands. In the end of the Disney version, the beast fights the villagers and almost dies but is transformed when Belle says she loves him. In this version the youngest daughter finds the beast laying dead and says she loved him so he is transformed into a prince. Below is my favorite song from the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast.

Bibliography: Europa's Fairy Book by Joseph Jacobs Link

Reading Notes, Brothers Grimm, Hunt, Part B

(Red Rose and Snow White, Pinterest)

My favorite story in this second part of the Grimm Brothers was Snow-White and Red-Rose. I was expecting this story to be like the Snow White we heard as children but it was not. Snow White and Red Rose were siblings, who were so close that they liked to hold hands as they ventured out. One night they spent the night in the woods and as they awoke, a young boy was sitting near them. Their mother told them it was an angel who watched over good children. One night, there was a knock on the door and it was a bear. The bear meant no harm and only wanted to warm itself so the little family let him in. The bear came every night throughout the winter and took his leave during the day. When summer came, the bear went away for good. Later that summer, their mother sent them into the woods for kindling and they met a strange dwarf with his beard stuck. Snow White cut off his beard as a way to free him and instead the dwarf was angry and put a bad curse on the siblings. The sisters continued to meet the dwarf and free him or save him from his miseries until they came across him emptying his many jewels and gold. Their bear saved them by killing the dwarf and when that happened he transformed into the King's son. Snow-White married him, and Red-Rose married his brother and they lived happily ever after.

Bibliography: Household Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm Link

Reading Notes, Grimm Brothers, Hunt, Part A

The stories in this section were particularly long. So I choose to read one that I heard as a child and compare the differences between the two. This happened to be Hansel and Grethel. Hansel and Grethel had a stepmother who, when times got tough and there was a lack of food, told their father that he needed to take them into the forest and leave them there. Though it was hard, their father consented, but Hansel heard the conversation and took white stones into the forest to find his way back. The came back and stayed for a while until times got tough, and their father took them into the woods and left them again. This time they could not find their way out so instead they followed a snow white bird. The bird led them to a house built with bread and covered with cake. The children began to eat the house and were interrupted by the owner, an old woman. The woman locked them up with plans to fatten them, and then eat them. Grethel tricked the woman and pushed her into the oven before harm could be done. On the way out they took the woman's pearls and jewels. They eventually found their way home, into their fathers arms who regretted what he had done. Their stepmother was death, and the little family lived happily ever after with the many jewels.

(Hansel and Grethel, Pinterest)

Bibliography: Household Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm Link

Reading Notes, Brothers Grimm, Ashliman, Part B

The second part of this collection contained stories that were all unfamiliar to me. My favorite story in this part was called the Little Lamb and the Little Fish. There were a brother and sister who loved each other very much and their mother had died. They were being raised by a stepmother. The children were playing a game outside and their stepmother grew so angry at their happiness, that she cursed them. She turned the girl into a little lamb and turned the boy into a little fish. After a long time in that form there were visitors to the castle. The stepmother tried to get rid of the lamb by killing it, but the brother fish saw and begged the cook against it. The cook agreed and gave both the lamb and fish to a wise woman in the village. The wise woman, who was previously a wet nurse for the children,  recognized them and turned them back into their original forms and they lived happily ever after.

(The Lamb and the Fish, Otto Ubbelohde)

Bibliography: The Grimm Brothers' Childrens' and Household Tales translated by Dan Ashliman Link

Reading Notes, Brothers Grimm, Ashliman, Part A

(The Elves, Tumblr)

Fairy tales written by the Grimm Brothers are some of my favorite! So I decided to start with some of the most well known ones. Ashliman translated some that are very well known and some that are not so much. My favorite known one in this section is Little Red Cap. It is the story upon with the classic fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood is based. However almost everyone knows that story. My favorite unknown one is called the Elves. In that story there is a poor shoemaker who only had enough money left for one last pair of shoes. He cut the leather and two little elves came in the middle of the night and sewed them into the finest pair of shoes that sold for double the price. This continued every night until the shoemaker stayed up to see who was sewing the shoes. When he saw it was little elves, he and his wife made some clothes, complete with shoes for them and set the outfits out. The next night when the elves came they saw the clothes, jumped for joy, put them on and ran off. But the shoemaker still lived happily ever after.


Bibliography: Grimm Brothers Children and Household Tales translated by Dan Ashliman Link

Reading Notes, More English Fairy Tales, Part B

For some extra reading notes, I decided to finish reading More English Fairy Tales. My favorite story in this collection was Rushen Coatie. This story was very similar to that of Cinderella. In this story, Rushen Coatie's father married, and his new wife had 3 children. They took all of Rushen Coatie's coats and gave her one mad of rushes. The made her sit in the kitchen nook. Before her mother's death, she told Rushen Coatie that a red calf will come and grant any wish. Her step-mother hoping that Rushen Coatie would die, only fed her a thimble of broth, a grain of barley, a thread of meat and a crumb of bread. So Rushen Coatie wished for food. Eventually the step-mother found out and had the calf killed. But Rushen Coatie could still make wishes on his bones. One day, the family went to church and Rushen Coatie had to stay and make dinner. So she wished for clothes and that dinner would be made and she went to church. There she met a prince who fell in love with her, but she had to return home and accidentally left her slipper there. The prince came and found her and they lived happily ever after.

(Rushen Coatie, John D. Batten)

Bibliography: More English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs Link

Reading Notes, King Arthur, Part A

(Arthur, Walter Crane)

King Arthur was a story that many of us heard as kids. There even was a Disney movie made from the myth called The Sword in the Stone. The myth that this movie was based on was the first story I read in this collection. This story was a little different. In this story, Arthur pulled out the sword from the stone. However, no knights were present when it happened so in order to claim the throne, Arthur had to put the sword back and pull it out with witnesses. When he pulled it out his father and brother were present and much to his dismay his father said that he is not actually his father. That Merlin was his father. The rest of the stories in this collection were all about the adventures of King Arthur.

Bibliography: King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table by Andrew Lang Link

Reading Notes, More English Fairy Tales

I really enjoyed the first unit of English Fairy Tales I read this week, so for some extra credit I decided to read more of them. I read the story "Tattercoat." This story reminded me of a variation of Cinderella. In this story, a mother died in childbirth. The child was raised by her grandfather who resented her for causing the death of his favorite child. So instead of "Cinderella" being raised by her stepmother, "Tattercoat" was raised by her grandfather. In both stories, the girls end up with the princes. The next story I really liked was "Scrapefoot." This storheiy is a variation on Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The only difference between the two is that instead of Goldilocks there is a Fox that sneaks into the bears home, sits in their chairs, sleeps in their beds and drinks their milk.

(Scrapefoot, John D. Batten)

Bibliography: More English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs Link

Reading Notes, English Fairy Tales, Part B

The second part of this collection was full of unfamiliar stories. There was a particular gruesome one called "Mr. Fox" in which a woman named Lady Mary married Mr. Fox. One day she went to her husbands castle and explored. She found a room full of young ladies skeletons, and watched as Mr. Fox cut off the hand of a young lady to get her diamond ring. Lady Mary then confronted her husband, and her brother and friends drew their swords and cut up Mr. Fox. The next story, "Johnny-cake" was a variation of the Gingerbread Man, although I definitely think the Gingerbread Man was cuter. This would be the story I would choose if I were to rewrite one. With this, I would make a sequel. Instead of Johnny-cake being eaten by a fox, I would have him outrun the fox, and write a sequel about his next adventure on the run.

(Johnny-Cake, John D. Batten)

Bibliography: English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs link to reading

Reading Notes, English Fairy Tales, Part A

This week is the beginning of the British/Celtic unit! I used the random story picker and it chose English Fairy Tales. The first story I read was "Tom Tit Tot." This story had the exact same plot as Rumplestiltskin by the Grimm Brothers. I also read "The Three Little Pigs." I think that if I were to chose a story from this first part to rewrite,I would choose this one! It was my favorite story to hear as a little kid. As this story is so well known, I think that it would be cool to write it in a rhyming poem!

Bibliography: English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs link to reading

Reading Notes, Nursery Rhymes, Part A

This week I decided to read nursery rhymes for extra reading. This collection had a lot of different sections of nursery rhymes such as proverbs, songs, tales, riddles, games, paradoxes, and charms and lullabies. The songs consisted of a lot of well known nursery rhymes like "Three Blind Mice," "Little Bo Peep," and "London Bridge." I think a good idea for a story would be to take one of these and expand it and write a sequel. I could also write a story about "This Little Piggy," or "Hickory Dickory Dock."

(Three Blind Mice)

Bibliography: The Nursery Rhyme Book edited by Andrew Lang and illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke link to reading

link to Three Blind Mice video

Reading Notes, The Great Plains, Part A

(The Eagle, Wikipedia)

This week I choose to read Native American Stories from the Great Plains Unit. I realized after reading all the stories in part A that I really didn't like any of them. I don't know if I am just not interested in Native American myths or if the writing was just not interesting to read. There was one story that I didn't completely dislike and that was "The Eagle's Revenge." In this story a hunter, who had killed a deer walked outside and saw an eagle eating that same deer. So he shot the eagle. The chief of the tribe called for a dance, and during that dance a stranger appeared. The tribe told seven stories of great deeds and at the end of each story the stranger yelled, "hi." Each time hi was uttered one of the men leading the dance fell dead. After the stranger vanished, the tribe learned that the stranger was the brother of the eagle who was killed. With this story I could rewrite it into a poem.

Bibliography: Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Katharine Berry Judson link to reading

Reading Notes, Robin Hood, Part A

(Robin Hood, Louis Rhead)

For some extra credit this week I choose to read something from the British/Celtic Unit. The story I decided to read was Robin Hood. I really liked how in this story was set up like a poem, so there were stanzas, and every other line rhymed. This entire story reminded me a lot of the cartoon Disney Robin Hood. An idea I have to turn this into a story is to retell it based in current times. So make it like a modern day Robin Hood. I could also tell it like a newspaper reporting the thefts that Robin Hood make. I cant wait to read more stories from this unit!

Bibliography: The English and Scottish Popular Ballads by Francis James Child link to reading

Reading Notes, Tejas Legends, Part A

(The Pink Cloud)

This week I chose to read stories from a tribe that lives in the state I was born: Texas. The stories in this collection personified inanimate objects which I thought was really cute. My favorite story to read was called The Cloud That Was Lost. At night clouds rest on top of mountains, but one cloud chasing its tail, sailed off from the others. When night fell he found himself over a broad, flat land and growing sleepily stretching himself over the land. The flowers on the land looked up, saw the pretty colors of the cloud, and wanting to be colorful too, drank until the cloud was gone. That's how the wild phlox flowers got their soft pretty color. An idea I had for the story this week was to tell the story from the flowers point of view, or even change the ending so that the cloud does not disappear. 

Bibliography: When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends retold by Florence Stratton link to reading

Reading Notes, Turkish Fairy Tales

I never had the opportunity to read a story from the Middle East so for extra reading this week I decided to explore it a little bit. I chose to read Turkish Fairy Tales. I thought that these stories were very hard to read, and understand so an idea I had to write a story is to translate it into a way so that I and other readers are able to better understand it. My favorite story in this compilation is The Fish-Peri. Peri means fairy in Turkish, and this story is about someone who finds a fish and takes him home. He digs the fish a well and gives it a home, and in return the fairy fish cleans its owners house.

(The Fish-Peri)

Bibliography: Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos link to reading

Reading Notes, Nigeria, Part B

I noticed that in this collection of stories, they all are organized the same. They are all basically why an animal does something. That's not necessarily a bad thing it just gets boring to read after a while. So my favorite story in this second part was The Election of the King Bird. In this story there was a wealthy powerful King. This king, although wealthy did not own any slaves and instead called upon animals to do the work he needed. To do this efficiently he crowed head chiefs of each species. Elephant for land, Hippo for water and when it became time to crown the air chief, he didn't know which bird species to choose. So he held a contest. The birds competed against one another, until finally all agreed that the fishing eagle should be the king of the skies.

(African Fish Eagle, Arturo de Frias Marques)

Reading Notes, Nigeria, Part A

Last week I chose to read Asian folklore's so this week I chose African folklore's. My favorite story in this part was Why the Bat Flies by Night. A bat and a bush rat were really good friends and always ate together but the bat was jealous of the rat. When asked how the soup they ate (that the bat cooked) was so good, the bat said that he boiled himself in the water and the sweetness of his flesh added to the soup. The bat jumped in a pot of warm water to show the bush rat. The rat then went home and told his wife he knew how to make the best soup. And so he boiled water and jumped in it and died. The wife grew angry at the bat and reported him to the king, who gave orders that the bat should be a prisoner. The bat escaped and to keep from being captured had to change his habits so that he slept during the day, and hunted during the night. I think it would be cool to retell this story as like a front page headline in a newspaper.

(Why the Bat Flies by Night, Christie Allen)

Bibliography: "Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria" by Elphinstone Dayrell link to reading

Reading Notes, Aesop for Children (Winter), Part A

(The Tortoise and the Ducks, Milo Winter)

As some extra reading this week I chose to go back to the Classical Unit we completed the first 2 weeks of school and reading something I never had the chance to: Aesop for Children. The stories in this collection were very short but still very cute to read. One of my favorites was the Tortoise and the Ducks. In this story there was a tortoise that was a home-body because he was unable to leave his home. Because of this, he was unable to attend a wedding for the goddess Jupiter. Years later he regretted not going, and wanted to see the world, so when he ran into some ducks he told them his troubles and they offered to help him see the world. They said that they would hold a stick between them while they flew and the tortoise could hold onto the stick with his teeth. Everyone was in awe, when they saw the tortoise flying, and one, a crow said that he must be the "King of Tortoises." The tortoise opened his mouth to respond and fell to the ground. The second story that I enjoyed was called the Travelers and the Sea. There were two travelers walking along the beach and they saw something in the water they thought was a treasure ship. As it got closer they thought it was a fisherman's boat carrying loads of fish. Finally it washed up on shore and the travelers thought it was a treasure chest filled with gold. They rushed to the object to find nothing but a log. The quote at the end is what I really liked. It said "Do not let your hopes carry you away from reality."