Extra Reading Diary: Celtic Fairy Tales

Celtic Fairy Tales

The Horned Women

I was excited when I saw that this story was in this unit! When I was researching stories to use in my storybook I came across this story but because of time and the fact that it didn’t really fit with the direction I wanted my storybook to go in. I’m glad that I got a second chance to go back and read this story. I noticed that this story had some similarities to one of the stories that used in my storybook – Baba Yaga. In this story, the woman tried to get water for the witches by carrying it in a sieve just like the little boy in the Baba Yaga story. Both characters tried many times to carry the water but the water kept running out. Both sets of witches told the characters to seal the sieve with clay. I thought it was kind of interesting that in both stories, a sieve was used to try to carry water. I wonder if there is some symbolic reasoning behind this or do witches just enjoy watching their “victims” carry water. 

(Sieve)

Storytelling Week 12: The Curse of the Piper

The Curse of the Piper

.It’s been a week since it happened. All of the adults don’t seem to understand. They have tried almost everything to keep this outbreak from harming more children but it seems as if they have absolutely no way of stopping it. My grandmother thinks that the town is cursed and I am starting to believe her. She has always told me tales of the piper and how he lured all of the children away. Every time she told me the story I would blow her off and call her crazy but now, I think she may be the only one who knows what’s going on. According to granny, many years ago, a man known as the Pied Piper did a great deed for the people of a town called Newtown. Unfortunately for him and for the people, the mayor of the town refused to pay the piper for his services and in return, the piper lured away all of the children of the town with his hypnotic tunes.

The people of town tried for years and years to have more children but after a few years, the piper would come back and the children would vanish. The people finally decided to relocate in order to get away from the Piper and start their lives over. This seemed to work and the townspeople had more children, and their children had children and so on. Now, kids are starting to go missing. Only this time, the ones going missing are girls. Girls ageing from 16-21. The whole town is in a panic. They have decided that the only way to keep us safe is to lock us up and keep an eye on us twenty-four seven. They have no clue what is causing this but, I think I might. Every girl went missing the same way. It all started with an iPod. I saw Sarah and Rachel sharing headphones on the bus one day. The next day, they were listening to the same iPod together and refused to put it down. When our teacher tried to take it away from them the kicked and screamed about how much they needed it. After that, every time they listened to this iPod, they would start screaming and jumping up and down and crying. When we would ask them what was wrong, they would reply, “Oh my Gosh! I love them so much!”

Not long after that, they were gone. These “symptoms” started happening to more and more of us and soon, girls all over town were having what they called “meet ups.” At these meet ups they would listen to their iPods and scream with each other. I’ve been trying to warm everyone about this but no one will listen except for Granny. She has decided to listen to whatever is on these mysterious iPods for herself. I watched her as she tore an iPod from one of the infected girls. I give her a day or so and she too will be gone like the rest of them. Granny puts the earbuds in and as I nervously stare at her. In an instant her eyes light up. When I ask her what is on the iPod, she stares blankly and says, “It sounds like a boyband. The Piper, he has found us. He must be using these boys to lure away our girls.” I stared at her, confused as she continued rambling. “He is smart. He’s taking away our girls. No girls, no children, just like all those years ago.  Curiosity gets the best of me and I snatch the earbuds from her. The last thing I remember is hearing the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard singing “You don’t know you’re beautiful” and then everything went dark.   

(Girls)

Author’s Note: This story is based on the fairy tale, The Pied Piper. As I was reading this story, I started thinking about things that could willingly lure kids away from their parents and I automatically thought about a tweet that I saw from a girl who said, “I would give up and sell my parents for One Direction.” As a self-proclaimed professional fangirl, I know how passionate girls can get about their favorite boy bands. You hear one amazing song from them and watch one music video ad next thing you know, you’ve been locked away in your room researching them for hours. I took this and thought to myself, if the Pied Piper used boy bands to do his dirty work, he could easily lure away hundreds of girls in an instant.

Bibliography: This story is based on the story The Pied Piper from the book, More English FairyTales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten(1894).

Reading Diary B: More English Fairy Tales(Continued)

The Children in the Wood

I really liked that this story was actually a poem! There was a poem in one of the stories in Through the Looking Glass but, it was a poem within a story instead of just a stand-alone poem. It is funny how as soon as you start reading a poem you read it with a certain rhythm or flow. The poem started out quite sad and depressing. Those poor kids lost both of their parents at the same time and were forced to live with an uncle who pretended to be nice while actually plotting their deaths. As soon as I read that the parents were rich and were leaving their children with a large sum of money, I knew that the uncle was going to get greedy and try to get rid of the children and take the money. I’m glad that he got what he deserved at the end.

Old Mother Wiggle-Waggle

This poem was so much fun! I knew I was going to enjoy it as soon as I read the title. My favorite part of the poem is that every stanza ended with a variation of “o”(hey-o, fox-o, den-o). I think this poem would be a cool thing to read to kids(if you leave out the end about picking bones out of their teeth) because they would be able to participate by saying the “o” parts. 

(Illustrated by John D. Batten)

Reading Diary A: More English Fairy Tales

More English Fairy Tales

The Pied Piper

The more and more I think about it, I do not think that I have ever actually read the story of The Pied Piper. I’ve heard of the story and I know the basics of the story but I have never read it. The most memorable reference of this tale for me is the version of the Piper in the Shrek movie. I always thought the Pied Piper was a bad guy who lured children to their doom. I had no idea that the only reason why he took the children of the town is because the mayor did not hold up hi end of the deal and refused to pay the Piper.  

Scrapefoot

When I read this title I had no idea that it was basically Goldie Locks and the Three Bears! I’ve never read or heard of another version of this story before but I found Scrapefoot to be adorable! Poor Scrapefoot. I didn’t think that the bears were actually going to throw him out of the window. Imagine if the bears in Goldie Lock’s version did that to her.

The Three Wishes

The only thing I have to say about this story is that the Woodman and his wife wasted a great opportunity. 

(Scrapefoot by John D. Batten)