Week 14 Reading Diary Continued: The Knight Bambus

For the rest of the Czech chapter I decided that I liked the story about The Knight Bambus as a possibility for storytelling. I liked that the gamekeeper was trying to do everything he could, but in the end he didn’t have what it took to stick with it. It is different than the happy endings that a lot of fairytales have. For my own story I would have a man who had never had a lot of money. He decided one day that he would go out a look for a new job to better support his wife and himself. He searched and found a man who said he would interview him for a position in his company. He went in and interviewed, and the man said he would call him tomorrow about the job. Tomorrow comes and the man does not get a call, so he decides to be proactive and go back to the firm to see if he got the job. When he gets there he sees the man who interviewed him walking down the hallways and going into what looked like a large conference room. He follow him into the room to talk to him about the job.  When he arrives he sees gold filling the entire large table in the conference room. The man tells him that he is a prince, but as a punishment for stealing he must give away all of his money. He tells the man that along with this money, he must give away his company that he built form the ground up. The poor man accepts everything, but the prince tells him he must tell no one. He especially must not tell his wife, for if his wife knew surely everyone would. He accepts all of these conditions, but is so excited when he gets home that he tells his wife of everything. The money is no longer there, and neither is the building that he was supposed to inherit.

Conference Room
From Wikipedia Commons

Week 14 Reading Diary: The Rose Bouquet

This week I chose the Czech Folktales unit to read because I wanted to change things up a little, and these didn’t sound like the typical folktales we always hear. I loved the first half of the unit, and especially loved the story of The Three Roses. It was very unexpected form beginning to end. When you think the daughter will get a reward, it seems she is about to be punished, but then eventually gets the reward after a strange series of events. I also thought the ending was funny, and just a little odd to be thrown in there. For my own story I would like to have a sister that wants to be brought any flowers that her mother thinks are pretty when her mother goes to the store. Her sisters have a long list of demands, though and she forgets while she is there. Her young daughter is very disappointed, so the mother goes out to a rose patch in the woods behind their house, and picks a glorious bouquet of roses for her dear daughter. Here she is bit by a snake, and is paralyzed. When the daughter goes in search of her the snake asks if that was her mother, and she confesses that the flowers were actually for her. The snake then has the girl do numerous tasks to ask forgiveness for stealing his flowers, and because he has no hands to complete these tasks. She finally has completed the tasks after three days, and the snake hands her the antivenom for her mother. He also hands her a set of keys to a castle that belongs to him. He says her final task is to take the keys and marry his human son. She does so, and everyone has a great time celebrating.

Roses
From Pixabay

Week 13 Storytelling: Ashley's Glasses

My name is Ashley. A few years ago I was in high school, and let me tell you it was horrible for the sot part. For the first three years I was either overlooked by everyone, or teased by those who didn’t see right through me. It was really mostly my stepsisters that picked on me, now that I think of it. They were terrible girls; so selfish and self obsessed. I was so lonely, and had very few friends. It may have been because I had enormous glasses that I used to wear. I also usually never wore my hair down or any makeup because it was just too much of a hassle for me in the mornings.  After those three years I was pretty sure everything would be the same for my senior year. I would’ve been ok with it at that point though because I was happy with my friends, and who I was.

Instead, there was a new kid on the first day. I remember I hadn’t yet seen him, but everyone was talking about him. We never really got many new kids. I was really excited to see what all the hype was about when it came to lunchtime, even though I knew it wouldn’t make any difference. When I saw him I was stunned by how drop dead gorgeous he was. If I were lucky enough to have him in any of my classes I would surely fail from my attention being elsewhere.

Of course, I found out next period that I would be failing math that year. Luckily he was sitting behind me, so it would be hard for me to look at him. I was also fairly good at math, so failing wasn’t really a possibility.

Over the next few weeks everything seemed relatively normal. Everyone ignored me, and I ignored them right back. We had a math test coming up within the next week, and I was busy studying for that. One morning I was so busy I ran out the door without a hairband to put my hair up. I knew this was going to be an off day as soon as I walked out the door.

That day in class the new kid actually talked to me (I found out his name was Derek). Derek asked me if I would help him study because he knew that I was the smartest in the class. I helped him all afternoon, and finally he started to be really picking up on everything! I was so excited that I must have left the room without my glasses. 

Glasses
From Pexels

The next day Derek was asking around to find me to give my glasses back, but no one seemed to be able to help him locate me.  Not even my own stepsisters knew they were mine. He had to wait until math period to give me my glasses, and when he did he asked me out on a date with him. Of course, I said yes! I was over the moon!

My stepsisters heard through the rumor mill, and it was quite funny to watch them so angry over this random new girl in Derek’s life. No one knew it was me, probably because no one knew me. We dated for months, and only when we made it official did everyone start to realize who the girl was that he was dating. People were so angry, like I had taken something from them, but we just ignored them.

From then on, no one messed with me, not even my stepsisters. Derek and I went off to college together, and dated for another four years, until he proposed to me on our graduation night. When I told my stepsisters they were so angry! SOne stubbed her toe so hard it bled, and the other got a nail in her heel from kicking the wall. It was quite the sight! Were getting married in about a month, and I couldn’t be happier!

Author’s Note: I decided to remake the Brother’s Grimm version of Cinderella, called Aschenputtel. In their story the girl weeps every night to the birds, and then they bring her a dress and shoes fit for the festival the prince is holding. Her stepsisters never realize that it is her until he shows up at their house with a shoe that will only fit her. He had put tar on the stairs to stop her from running away, but only was left with her shoe. Her stepsisters both cut off pieces of their feet to fit into the shoe, which is where their injuries in my story come from.

Bibliography: Aschenputtel from Walter Crane's Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm (1886)

Week 13 Reading Diary Continued: King Thrushbeard

Grace Kelly 

For the second half of this weeks reading of Crane’s storiesfrom Brother’s Grimm I really enjoyed all of the stories. My favorite, though, was King Thrushbeard because I had never heard this tale in particular. It seemed to have a very good lesson involved too. The princess in this story is very snooty, and makes fun of every suitor that comes to take her hand. She ends up getting what’s coming to  her when her father makes her marry a poor beggar. She then has to live that life, but eventually finds out the beggar is King Thrushbear, one of the men she made fun of. For my story I would like to have a young girl who is very beautiful, and gets whatever she wants as my main character. She makes fun of other people because they do not have as nice of things as she does, but eventually her parents kick her out because they are embarrassed by her selfish behavior. She soon learns how terrible her behavior has actually been, and sees that to have nice things takes a lot of factors, and that she was wrong to make fun of people for it. One day she is walking on the streets and sees her parents. She tells them that she has seen how she was wrong, and that she has changed. They will then allow her to move back in, and have everything she had before because she has learned the value in having these things.

Week 13 Reading Diary: Aschenputtel

This week I read the Brother’s Grimm (Crane) unit. My favorite was the alternate story of Cinderella, called Aschenputtel. I thought it was interesting that in this telling of the tale there was a festival, instead of a ball, that lasted a few days. I liked that it showed how desperate the sisters were to be royalty, and that they would even cut off pieces of their feet to do so. It was definitely a darker twist on the Cinderella we all grew up with.  For my own story I would like to use a high school setting where a girl goes to school without her glasses and meets a very cute boy. After they are done talking she accidentally leaves a book with initials in it. He then searches the entire senior class until he finds the one he is looking for. The girl’s step-sisters would never believe it is her because each morning she leaves with her big glasses that take up her whole face, and also comes back with them. They think that no one could ever like her with those hideous things on her face. Eventually when he does find her, her sisters try to suck up and steal the boy away from her because they have no one. In the end the step-sisters end up sabotaging their grades in order to win over the boy, and cannot graduate. They get stuck going to summer school, while their step-sister hangs out with her perfect boyfriend all summer long.

Cinderella's Glass Slipper