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Grass hopper talking to ants Source:  Un-Textbook For this extra credit reading on Aesop's Fables, I will be focusing on the story "Insects, Fishes, and Frogs" by Sir Brooke Boothby. In this story there are eight different miniature stories. The first story is "The Ant and he Grasshopper" and in this story a grasshopper asked for food from an ant but the ant refused and mocked the grasshopper for singing and dancing in the summer and not working. The next story is "The Gnat and the Ox" and in this story is about a gnat sitting on an ox who thinks his weight is tiring the ox out. The next story is "The Fly" and in this story a fly thinks hes the cause of clouds in the sky. The next story is "The pike and the Herring" and is about a pike who is a big and fierce creature but soon comes to realize from a herring that there is always a bigger fish in the sea. Up next is the story "The Angler and the Little Fish" which is a...

Princess on a 28 mattress bed source:  Un-Textbook For this weeks readings I chose to read Anderson fairy tale unit. Within this unit I will be focusing on the story "The Princess and the Pea" by Hans Christian Anderson. This story is about a prince who is longing to marry but only wants to marry a princess. The prince would search far and wide trying to find that perfect princess that he would like to marry but he never had any luck. One day though there was a terrible thunderstorm and during this storm there was a knock on the door. The door was answered and surprisingly enough a girl who said she was a princess was at the door. To prove that this girl was a princess the Queen had the girl sleep in a bed that a pea under the mattress, but there wasn't just one mattress but twenty eight mattresses and twenty eight eiderdown beds. The princess slept through the night and in the morning the queen ask how she felt. The princess said she slept terrible and that the bed w...

A bird wearing peacock feathers Source:  Un-Textbook For the second part of reading Aesop's fables, I will be focusing on the story Birds from the story source "The Fables of Phaedrus" translated by Christopher Smart. This story is also multiple stories in one but instead of a donkey like in my first reading notes, this one is about a bird. The first story is called "The Vain Jackdraw" and in this story a Daw picked up quills of a Juno's bird and tried to wear them around other peacocks. The peacocks were not particular fond of this and "roughed" up the bird for it, driving the bird off. The second story is called "The kite and the Doves" and in this story about a hawk, which is called a kite, and doves. The doves are usually able to avoid the hawk due to their quickness at flight but the hawk was able to trick the doves and start to prey on them. The last story is "The Cock and the Pearl" which is about a rooster who stumbl...

A donkey wearing a lions skin trying to fool his master Source:  Un-Textbook For this weeks reading I decided to read Aesop's Fables unit and I will be focusing on Aesop's fables: Asses in the story of "Fables and Satires" by Sir Brooke Boothby. This writing is actually made up of multiple stories in one all about a donkey. Each small story within this all are unrelated to each other. The first story is called "The Ass and the Lion skin" and is about a donkey who finds a lion skin and decides to wear it. The donkey went around pretending to be a lion scaring other animals. Eventually the donkey went to his master home and tried to scare him but the master saw right through the disguise. The second story is "The Ass, The Ape, and the Mole" and in this story the donkey and a ape complain about how he wants a horn and the ape complains about his short tale, but a mole puts them both to shame when he tells them that they are lucky they weren't...

Crow Source:  Pixabay In the second part of reading "Welsh Fairytales and other stories" I will be writing about the story "Crows." This story is all about crows and what it means when you see them. It starts out with a poem that talks about what happens when you see a crow then what happens when you see two crows and so on until it reaches seven crows. When you see seven crows with their tails towards you it means that you will die within seven years. So after this poem it focus on a young man who had been out at seas for years before. The man had started to have crazy dreams at night that would have him doing all sorts of things such as flying through mountains and seeing fairies and giants, but one thing that was consistent in his dream was that he kept seeing seven crows. In the last parts of the young mans dream he was steering his ship out at sea and seven appeared in front of him and the man couldn't steer his boat. the boat got struck by a steeple an...

The prince's child next to a dead wolf Source:  Un-Textbook For this weeks reading I am reading the Welse (Elmerson) unit and will be focusing on the story Welsh Fairy- Tales and Other Stories by Peter H Emerson, to write about. This story is about a royal family who has a passion for hunting wolves. the family would often go on hunting parties and travel to many of their different farm houses, which is their hunting houses, to go out and hunt. Often then would travel farm house to farm house to hunt multiple times. While hunting the prince had a favorite hunting dog named Gelert. Gelert was the best hunting dog out of all the other dogs and was always first to show up when the prince blew his horn. During one hunt the hunting party was out hunting as usual until after two hours passed and the prince realized Gelert was missing.The prince blew his horn and to his surprised Gelert did not show. This really worried the prince and the party decided to go back home to find Gelert. ...

Stars Source:  Un-Textbook For part B of the notes of "Myths of Cherokee" I will be focusing on the story "Origin of the Pleiades and the Pine." In this story there are seven kids who like to play a game called gatayusti and play it instead of going to dinner. The kids not coming to dinner to play the game really upset the mother. So one day the mother decided to put a gatayusti rocks which are used in the game in the corn she cooked for dinner. When the boys finally came back for dinner they saw the rocks in the corn and asked the mother what it was. She told the boys that if they want to play games instead of come to dinner then they can eat the game stones for dinner. This angered the boys so they decided to leave to where they wouldn't be treated this way anymore. So the boys went outside to the townhouse and start a feather dance asking the spirits to help them. When doing this the mother sensed something was wrong and went outside to find them. When t...

Fire Source:  Wikipedia For this weeks unit I am reading Myths of the Cherokee and focusing on the story "The First Fire." In this story it talks about the first time fire was created in the world. It was first created from a strike of thunder hitting a hollow sycamore tree. All the animals in the forest could see the fire from afar because of the smoke building up in the air. The animals wanted a fire of their own so they tried to decided on a plan to grab the fire and bring it over to their side of the land. At first the idea was to have the birds fly over and bring it back, but it did not work out as planned. The first bird to fly over was a raven and when he flew over to the fire all his feathers got scorched black so he had to fly back. Up next a screeching owl tried but when he went to the fire the heat burned out his eves causing his eyes to be red. After a hooting and horned owl went together but the fire had ground so much that the smoke was blinding them before ...

Man jumping across a cliff Source:  Pixabay For this reading unit I read Laos folk lore stories and for this writing i will be focusing on the story called "The Lovers Leap." In this story there is a young male and female who are desperately in love with each other. Both the male and female want to marry each other but the females father will not allow it because he does not like the male. The father forbid his daughter to ever see or communicate with the young man no matter what the situation is. They often wanted to go meet with each other but the daughter was watched very closely everyday. After time went on the father had thought that the daughter was over the young man and threw a party to find the daughter a husband that he approved of. During the party the woman wondered away still thinking of the young man that she loved and by surprise the young man had sneaked into the party and found her. The two were extremely happy and ended up leaving on the young man's ...

Tiger Source:  pixabay For this weeks reading I chose to read Laos folk-lores and within this folklore I am going to focus on the story "A Child in the Woods." This story is about a woman and her story to why she is so honored within her village. It starts with a stranger asking the woman why she is honored like a princess in village. The rest of the story is the woman explaining how she became what she is today. While the woman was young she became filled with hatred against men and decided to leave her village and go out into the jungle. While in the jungle the woman had no fear and would travel for days eating fruit she found and would sleep under a tree each night while wild beast would watch over her. Day afater day this continued until she ran into another village and by this time she had cooled off with her hatred from men. The woman went into this village and told them about her journey within the jungle. The village was in awe and provided her with many gifts and...

Snake Source:  Un-Textbook For today''s reading of the continuation of the South African Folktales, I will be talking about a story called "The White Man and Snake." In this story a white man an finds a snake that is stuck under a rock and can not get out. The white man decides that he will lift the stone which will free the snake. So the man went over to the rock and lifted up the stone but as the stone was lifted the snake went to bite the man. The man yelled at the snaked telling it to stop and asked why the snake would bite him if he freed it. The snake and man went to ask for advice from a hyena and the hyena said what does it matter if the snake bites you. The hyena was not any help so they went to a jackal and asked for his advice. The jackal then said he didn't believe the snake was ever stuck so the snake wanted to prove it and all of them headed back to the rock at which the snake was stuck. The snake then went to the spot and the man put the rock ba...

Jackal Source:  Pixabay For this weeks readings I chose to read about South African Folk tales. Within the folktales I am going to focus on the story "The Lion, The Jackal, and The Rope." In this story a lion kills a eland but wants a drink of water down the hill so the lion as the jackal to watch the eland for him, but not to eat it. The jackal agrees and the lion goes to get a drink. The jackal went back on his agreement and the jackal and his wife ate the eland while the lion was gone. When the lion returns he ask the jackal for a rope to help climb back up the hill. The jackal and his wife trick the lion and give it a weak rope. So as the lion was climbing up the jackal pull the rope hard and it snapped causing the lion to roll down the hill. The jackal hits a hide making it seem like he his hitting his wife to the lion making the lion feel bad and tell the jackal not to do it and to try again. The jackal does the same trick two more times and on the third time the l...

Lion and Crane Source:  Un-Textbook For my story notes this week I chose to do them over Indian Fairy Tales. This reading is a multiple different stories within one reading. Each story is different and has its own setting and plot line. Two of the stories that stood out to me were "The Lion and the Crane" and "The Tiger, The Brahman, and the Jackal." These two stories are both similar in content. Both of the stories have an animal known to kill who are saved by someone or something else and does not return any favor for saving the beast.  In “The Lion and the Crane” a crane saves a lion from choking on a bone and the lion says to the crane his reward is him not being eaten. In “the Tiger, Brahman, and the Jackal” the Brahman saves a tiger from a cage but the tiger says he’s going to eat the Brahman after he got out. The tiger then had to be tricked back into the cage to save the Brahman’s life. I think it would be a great turn around to make a new story with...

A magical genie Source:  Pixabay For this post I will be talking about Arabian Nights, Part B, which is "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp". This story is about Aladdin who lives in a poverty stricken Chinese town with his mother because his father died. One day Aladdin was playing in the streets when a magician came up to him and said that he was his uncle and told him to come work with him which will make Aladdin wealthy if he did. Aladdin decided to take up the magicians offer and the magician took Aladdin to the a cave that was booby trapped but told Aladdin to go in and retrieve an "oil lamp" within. When Aladdin got the lamp he refused to give it to the magician making the magician angry and he trapped Aladdin in the cave. After two days of being trapped Aladdin rubs a ring that magician had given him for protection and a genie appears in which he wished to be back home. At home Aladdins mom tries to clean the lamp that Aladdin had found and from rubbing it ...

A monster called a Genius trying to kill a merchant but three old men are trying to talk him out of it Source:  Un-textbook For this blog I will be writing about Arabian Nights, Part A. This story is about a king who found out his wife had cheated on him and decided that all women were equal. So every day since he found out he would marry a new woman and have her executed the next morning by the grand-vizir. Now the grand-vizir is the one who would not only execute the women but also bring them to the king. One day the Grand-vizirs daughter Scheherazade told her dad that she wanted to marry the king. The Vizir did not like this at all but after a long argument he had no choice but accept his daughters request. The daughter, Scheherazade actually had a plan to stop the killings all together. After being married she will ask the king to allow her sister to spend the night since it will be her last night in which the king agreed. This night Scheherazade told a story to her sister ...

Robin Source:  Wikipedia For this week's reading I am reading The book of Saints and Friendly Beast by Abbie Farwell Brown. This book is actually filled with separate stories of different saints and animal experiences and for this first reading I am reading 4 of them. The first story, Saint Kentigern and the Robin, is about some young children being jealous of Saint Kentigern at school because he is perfect in every way and is the the shool leader , Saint Servan, favorite pupil. So to try to get Saint Servan to not admire Saint Kentigern so much the other kids set traps for Kentigern to make him look bad or get in trouble. Many of the kids traps failed so they went to the extreme to get Kentigern in trouble by killing Servans pet robin and blaming Kentigern. Servan was furious and believed the kids saying Kentigern did it but Servan proved himself innocent when he prayed to heal the bird if he was innocent and the bird came back to life. What I question in this story is why ...

Hera commanding the sun to set Source:  Un-Textbook This reading started out with the fight for the body of Patroclus. Hector took the armor of Patroclus which was from his enemy, Achilles, and wore it himself. This was extremely disrespectful to Achilles and I thought was a very big power move for Hector really helping the tension of the story as the climax approaches. During the story it talks about Achilles horses not listening to anyone and crying due to the death of Patroclus. I thought this was kind of weird and I don't see the point of telling this in the story. I thought the battle between Achilles and Hector was done very well. The detail about the fight made me feel as if I was there, also the way it was worded made me really be able to feel the tension between the two. A big focus that I want to have on my story is detail that allows the reader to really engage into the story. Also I thought that the killing of Hector really made the story better adding more suspense...

Clay pot of Achilles Embassy Source:  Un-Textbook " Homers Iliad " For my reading I decided to read "Homer's Iliad" because I have seen it before and learned a about it in high school so I figured I would read it again and really get in-depth with the story. This story is about the Trojan war which started from the kidnapping of the Helen who is the wife of Menelaus, the King of Sparta.Nine years after the start of this war the Greek army attacks a town allied with troy and captures two woman with one being the daughter of a priest of Apollo. The priest tries to buy his daughter back but the king declines so the priest ask the god Apollo for help which he does causing a chain reaction in events. This events eventually lead to a truce between sides but not without some tragic deaths. The first words of this entire story are "Once upon a time" which gave me the feeling as if I was about to read a big fairy tale type story. As I was reading through ...

up close picture of the moon to see the rocks that form the shape of a man source: Wikipedia The Man in the Moon  by  Katherine Neville Fleeson This is a short story about how the rocks on the moon came to look like a man. There was once a blacksmith who complained about the problems he had as a blacksmith. The man said things like how he is not well and it is too hot so he wished he could be a stone on a mountain where it was cool. This magical man that heard the blacksmith granted him this wish and the blacksmith become a stone on the mountain. After so long the blacksmith didn't like being a stone and wanted to be a stone cutter and the magical man agreed once more. The blacksmith kept complaining about what he was and the magical man kept changing him until he got to be the moon at which he wanted to go back to being a blacksmith but the magical man was tired of the changing and left the blacksmith as a moon. I like how the story had a deeper message behind it as t...

After scrolling through the different units on the Untextbook I noticed quite a few units that caught my eye but the three units that I thought I would enjoy most were  Japanese Mythology ,  Egyptian Myth , and the  Monkey King . A book and coffee Source: Pixabay Japanese Mytholog y caught my attention because Japanese stories always seem to be a fun read and have quite unique plots which really keep my attention. I chose  Egyptian Myth  because I've have always had an interest in Egyptian history and the stories behind what they did and how they were so advanced in technology for their time. When I first saw the  Monkey King  unit I knew it had to be a must read. I have watched movies about the monkey king growing up and have always had an interest in it, so i am really excited to dive into this unit.