Extra Reading Diary - Nursery Rhymes

For this reading diary, I am finishing reading Nursery Rhymes.

Nursery Rhymes: Jingles - I wasn't surprised by the fact there were only a few I recognized.  It seems like there are quite a few that I have never heard of.

Nursery Rhymes: Love and Matrimony - I understood why the majority of the nursery rhymes were put in this section, but there were a couple that I was confused why they were there.

Nursery Rhymes: Natural History, Part 1 - I thought all of these nursery rhymes were very cute, talking about the different animals.

Nursery Rhymes: Natural History, Part 2 - I thought these rhymes were just as cute as the first page of natural history rhymes.

Nursery Rhymes: Accumulative Stories - I was surprised there wasn't a rhyme similar to the old lady who lived in a shoes.

Nursery Rhymes: Relics - There was only one that I recognized which was the rhyme "Little Miss Muffet".

(Wikipedia)

Extra Reading Diary - Nursery Rhymes

For this reading diary,  I am reading Nursery Rhymes.

Nursery Rhymes: Tales - I liked the different nursery rhymes.  I had actually known about the Solomon Grundy rhyme because he is a character in a video game that my boyfriend likes to play.

(Printable Coloring Pages)

Nursery Rhymes: Proverbs - I liked reading the different proverbs.  My favorite was the one called Monday's child.  I don't know why, I just liked reading it.

Nursery Rhymes: Songs, Part 1 - I liked reading the different songs that were on this page.  There were some that I didn't recognize and there were some that I did recognize like "Little Bo Peep" and "London Bridge".

Nursery Rhymes: Songs, Part 2 - These songs were interesting to read.  There were not as many that I recognized on this page, as I did the last.

Nursery Rhymes: Riddles - I liked the challenge of these riddles.  I didn't know that Humpty Dumpty was originally supposed to be a riddle.

Nursery Rhymes: Paradoxes - I had never read any of the different paradoxes that were included.  I thought it was a very interesting read.

Nursery Rhymes: Charms and Lullabies - I liked recognizing the different lullabies and charms that I had read previously.

Nursery Rhymes: Games - I remember playing a few of the games when I was younger.  I would be interested in finding out how to play the other games.

Storytelling Week 11

Alice was sick of all of this.  She couldn’t believe how incompetent the Queen and King were!  They were just doing whatever they wanted and didn’t even care about the people they were effecting! 

“Sentencing first then reading the verdict!”  The Queen declared with the pompous attitude that Alice was really getting sick of.

(Wikipedia)

“That is not how it goes!” Alice huffed.  “You have to hear the verdict before the sentencing!”

The Queen glared at Alice and started to turn a rather interesting shade of purple.  “OFF WITH HER HEAD!” She yelled at the top of her lungs.  All of the guards rushed towards Alice with hesitation.  Her head was hitting the ceiling of the huge courtroom.  How were they supposed to control someone who was as tall as the building they were in?  They also liked Alice.  She didn’t yell like the Queen and actually seemed to be kind.  They all gathered around Alice, looking up at her, unsure of what to do next. 

“Stop, stop, stop!” yelled Alice.  “This is not how it is supposed to be!  The Queen and King are the people that you are supposed to want to follow.  Not the people you HAVE to follow!  Everyone is supposed to have a ruler that they want ruling their kingdom.  Not a tyrant that does what he or she wants!”

Everyone in the courtroom looked around at each other, unsure of what to do next.  Then, one by one, all of the cards turned around and faced the Queen and King.

“You have controlled Wonderland enough!  We no longer want you to be the rulers of Wonderland!” one of the cards yelled out.

“Yeah! Enough!” Shouted everyone else in the room, including the animals in the jury box.  The King and Queen exchanged nervous glances.  Everyone could read their expressions, and it said What was going to happen next loud and clear. 

Suddenly, all of the cards charged for the King and Queen shouting at the top of their voices.  It was all chaos and confusion for a while after that.  But eventually, everything calmed down.  Everyone in the room stopped and turned to look at Alice.  “Well, what do we do now?” wondered Alice.

The white rabbit sat up on the stand where the King and Queen had been before they ran out the door.  “Anyone opposed to Alice becoming Queen of Wonderland, speak now.”  The room was quiet.  No one said anything.  “It is settled then.  Alice is the new Queen of Wonderland.”

The room erupted into cheers.  Someone gave Alice a piece of cake, where she became the same size as everyone else.  She then went and ruled Wonderland and Wonderland was the happiest it had been in a long time.  

Author's Note: While taking inspiration from the entire story of Alice in Wonderland, I mainly used Alice's Evidence (cont.).  I wanted to take the ending that we all know so well and change it so there is a different ending to the story.

Reading Diary B - Alice in Wonderland

For this reading diary, I am finishing reading Alice in Wonderland.

A Mad Tea Party - The march hare, the mad hatter and the dormouse were all sitting at a table under a tree.  They said there wasn't any room for Alice at the table when there was plenty of room.  Then the four of them began to banter back and forth.  Finally Alice said that she just simply did not understand them.

A Mad Tea Party (cont.) - The dormouse fell asleep again, and none of them could figure out why a raven was like a writing desk.  They continued to banter on together, making absolutely no sense.

A Mad Tea Party (end.) - The four of them still bantered on together, and then finally everybody except for Alice tried to see if they could put the Dormouse into a teapot.  Alice then found an interesting looking path, that she followed.  Before she knew it, she was in a beautiful garden.

The Queen's Croquet Ground - Alice saw three playing cards painting all of the white roses in the garden red.  The three cards heard that the Queen was coming and they became absolutely terrified.  Alice looked around and saw a parade of people.  First were soldiers, then the white rabbit, and then the King and Queen of Hearts.  The Queen became very angry about the white roses, and declared that the three cards should be beheaded.  She then invited Alice to play croquet.

The Queen's Croquet Ground (cont.) - This is the part of the story where Alice plays croquet with the Queen of Hearts.  Alice was very confused by all of it, but then she saw the Cheshire cat was there.

(Wikipedia)

The Queen's Croquet Ground (end.) - Alice was talking to the Cheshire cat and the King found the cat displeasing.  So he had the Queen order his head be cut off.  The executioner tried to behead the cat but it was hard because he did not have a body.

Who Stole The Tarts? - In this chapter, there is a trial of the Knave of Hearts who supposedly took the Queen's tarts.  The trial than turned into focusing on the Mad Hatter and his hats.

Who Stole The Tarts? (cont.) - The trial on the Mad Hatter was very confusing with a lot of people going around in circles.  Then suddenly, Alice heard her named being called to enter into the trial.

Alice's Evidence - Alice suddenly realized that she had grown quite a bit in the last few minutes and completely disrupted the court.  They tried Alice, then they tried to get her to leave the court.

Alice's Evidence (cont.) - The White Rabbit read a poem that the King thought proved someone was guilty.  The Queen then wanted Alice beheaded but since she had grown her full size by this point, she was not going to pay attention to the Queen.  Then Alice's sister woke her up saying she had been asleep for a while.

Reading Diary A - Alice in Wonderland

For this reading diary, I am reading Alice in Wonderland.

Down the Rabbit Hole - Alice was tired of watching after her sister, so she let her mind wander.  She was suddenly surprised when a white rabbit jumped in front of her and checked the time on a pocket watch!  She followed the rabbit down the rabbit hole it had scurried into.  The hole became a long tunnel and suddenly she was in a large room with different jars.  She wondered where she was because she was suddenly in a very curious place.

Down the Rabbit-Hole (cont.) - Alice was very confused as to where she was.  She looked down a passage and saw the white rabbit scurrying in front of her, so she followed the passage.  It led her to a room filled with locked doors.  She then saw a gold key, which unlocked one of the doors!  It led to a garden but sadly, she would not fit because the door was so small.  She thought it was no use trying to get into the door, but then she found a bottle that said "Drink Me".

Down the Rabbit-Hole (end.) - Suddenly Alice found herself only 10 inches high.  She went to go to the door, but she had forgotten the key on the table!  She tried to climb up, but she wasn't able to climb up.  Then she found a small cake labeled "Eat Me".  She ate the cake and started to grow.  She then struck the roof of the room!

Advice from the Caterpillar - "Who are you" asked the Caterpillar.  Alice wasn't very sure how to respond.  The caterpillar and alice went back and forth discussing who exactly she was.

Advice from the Caterpillar (cont.) - The young man asked Father William if it was ok for him to stand on his head at such an old age.  The young man asked the same thing about him somersaulting backwards time and time again.  Father williams said each time that because he was old, he did not have to worry about injuring something.

Advice from the Caterpillar (end.) - Alice was very much glad to finally back to a normal size.  She then suddenly found herself covered in green sea-leaves where a pigeon mistook her for a serpent.  The pigeon thought she was a serpent and not a little girl because she had a rather long neck, due to the mushroom.  She went on her way until she found the same mushroom and ate a little bit to make herself go down in size.

Pig and Pepper - A fish-footman and a frog-footman both pulled up to the house that was in front of Alice.  Alice tried to get into the house but the frog-footman said there was no point in knocking.  The ruckus in the house was so loud no one could hear her knocking.  The Duchess was cooking in the kitchen, and could not see anyone outside of the kitchen.

Pig and Pepper (cont.) - Alice said she didn't know a lot about cheshire cats, and the Duchess agreed with her.  The cook then started to throw everything in the kitchen at the Duchess.  The Duchess and the cook started fighting with each other and yelling at each other.  Alice cared for the little baby, because the Duchess had put the baby to the side.

Pig and Pepper (end.) - Alice set the pig down and it walked into the forest.  Alice asked the cheshire cat how was the way to go, and the cheshire said it was dependent upon where she wanted to go.  Alice started walking and then she saw the march hare.

(Wikipedia)

Storytelling Week 10: My Romance

"My mother is crazy.  She wants me to go marry some BUTCHER, of all people.  Who does she think she is?!  Who does she think she is dealing with?!" I ranted to myself as I walked through the woods. I hated the idea of killing animals.  I would much rather spend my time in the woods or with Angelo.

Even thinking of him made me smile.  He was one of the woods people who never interacted with the village.  They had an area all to themselves in the woods and were able to provide for themselves as well, which is why they never went into the village.  Most of the people in the village didn't believe that they existed.  They all thought it was some sort of legend that was passed down from generation to generation.  But I had met them and was even in love with one of the members.  I like to spend time in the woods.  One day, I wandered a little farther than I should have.  I suddenly heard voices and went off to investigate.  I had found the woods people!  I couldn't believe it.  The first person I met there was Angelo, and the rest was history.

I went over to Angelo's hut.  He was sitting there, working on making a basket to collect plants in the forest.  When he looked up and saw my face, he automatically knew something was wrong.  I sat down and explained the horrible, horrible situation.

The horrible situation was the fact that my mother wanted me to marry the local town butcher.  Heavy set, rude, and not even caring about the animals that he slaughtered, I couldn't picture a man more unsuitable for me to marry.  Somehow my mother thought that he would be a good person to settle down with though.

Angelo listened to my woes and let me work through my tears and my ranting.  We had been together long enough that he knew I needed to get through everything first or I would just end up snapping at him.  After my tears finally stopped flowing, he had the biggest grin on his face.

"Why are you smiling?" I asked him suspiciously.

"Because, my dear, I have a brilliant idea that you are going to love," he said, his voice shining with excitement.

"Oh yeah?  And what is this great idea?"  I asked him dubiously, thinking there was no way he would be able to turn this situation around.  But as he started to whisper to me what his idea was, I started to become excited as well.  I could not wait for this plan to happen.

A few weeks later, I was getting dressed for my wedding to the butcher.  Everyone else was buzzing around with excitement but I was as calm as I could be; considering what was going to happen, I needed to be as calm as possible.  Before I knew it, I was ready to go.

(Wikipedia)

I started to walk outside when my mother made me stop short.

"Where do you think you are going?!" My mother exclaimed when she saw I was heading outside.

"To the woods.  This will probably be the last time I can go to the woods.  I need to say good bye."

"Ok go.  But don't stay out too long!  The ceremony starts in an hour!"  She yelled after me as I walked out the door.

I reached the woods and breathed a sigh of relief.  I had made it.  I started walking and didn't stop.  I kept walking and walking and walking.  Finally I found Angelo.  He almost started crying when he saw me.

"You look amazing my beautiful bride.  Let's go get married, shall we?"  And grabbing my hand, we walked into the hut that was to be our chapel.  I never looked back.

Author's Note:  I wrote this story based off of story The Fairy Bride.  I liked the story and how the story developed, but I thought that there also could be so much potential when Neen-i-zu's side of the story was taken into consideration.  I also just finished watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy for the first time recently, so hearing the story mention fairies inspired me.

American Indian Fairy Tales by W.T. Larned, with illustrations by John Rae (1921). 

Reading Diary B - Native American Fairy Tales

For this reading diary, I am going to finish reading Native American Fairy Tales.

The Boy Who Snared The Sun - Iagoo starts to tell the story of how there was a time that a thousand strong young boys would not have been a match against a mouse.  In that time, people did not eat animals but instead ate berries and what the ground provided.  The biggest animal there was was the Mastodon called Bosh-kwa-dosh.  In that time there was a little girl and a boy who was a dwarf.  The girl brought the boy everywhere with her.  One day she decided to make him a bow and some arrows for him to practice with.

The Boy Who Snared The Sun (cont.) - Winter was coming and the boy was wondering how he would keep from freezing.  So he learned how to shoot with the bow and arrow and killed ten snow birds.  His sister then sewed the skins together to make a coat for him.  He then decided to see if there were any other humans living on the earth.  His sister was afraid that he would be hurt, but he went anyway.  He walked and walked and found a flat area with no snow and fell asleep.  The sun then shrank the feathers on the coat that the boy was so proud of.  When he woke up and saw what happened, he vowed to take revenge on the sun.  He spent 10 days laying in the grass on his back then 10 days on his stomach and decided to use a noose to capture it.  His sister then created a rope using her hair for the noose.  He then drew it between his lips and it became stronger and longer until it became a metal he would wrap around his body.  He then put the noose where the sun would rise first thing in the morning and it was caught.

The Boy Who Snared The Sun (end) - The animals were all very confused by the fact the sun had not risen.  The East Wind told the animals why the sun had not risen.  Many animals tried to cut the rope but no one could get close enough.  Finally the animals decided to wake up Dormouse to cut the rope.  Their argument was that Dormouse was so big that if part of him burned up, there would still be enough of him left.  So Dormouse started to chew the rope, and by the time he was done, he was no bigger than an ordinary mouse.

How The Summer Came - Morning Glory was sick of the snow and the winter.  She asked Iagoo if there was ever a time that the North Wind just stayed and summer never came.  Iagoo said there was a time and proceeded to start the story of how summer first came to the world.  There one was a mighty hunter named O-jeeg who was able to hunt every type of animal.  Everything he did, he did very well.  He was also friends with all of the animals for he was able to turn himself into the fisher.

How The Summer Came (cont.) - O-jeeg had a wife and son whom he loved very much.  His son was showing just as much skill at being a hunter as O-jeeg had.  The son had heard a story about how the sky was also a floor for a world called Summer.  The son often wondered if there was a way to bring the world of Summer to the land that they now lived in.  One day the son was out in the woods and had been unsuccessful in his hunt.  He saw a squirrel nearby and went to go shoot it.  However, it told him that he, the squirrel, knew how to make Summer come to the Earth.  The boy was shocked because the stories were true!  The squirrel told of how the animals had known for a while and how O-jeeg could be the one to help because he was a Manito.  The boy went home and bugged his father until he agreed.  O-jeeg then gathered the animals to decide what to do.  Lynx said that there was a very tall mountain that almost touches the sky.  And there was also a Manito who was the size of a giant that could help them open the sky.

How Summer Came (end) - O-jeeg set off on this great journey, following the lynx.  After a month they reached the tent of the other Manito.  The Manito told them how to reach the mountain.  Then he warned that O-jeeg would be able to reach the sky, but he may not make it back down again.  The group, O-jeeg and the animals, set off for the mountain.  They reached the mountain and began to climb.  They climbed and climbed until they finally reached the top.  After taking a break to smoke a pipe and celebrate their accomplishment.  The animals then tried to break the sky.  Otter first tried, the beaver and then lynx.  Wolf then tried and he was able to start breaking the sky.  O-jeeg had spent his entire life in winter, so he amazed by the beauty of summer when the sky finally broke.  O-jeeg open cages to let birds out and soon the other seasons.  The sky-people saw what was happening and started making noise.  Wolf was able to jump through the hole and escape but O-jeeg was not as lucky.  The sky-people chased him and eventually shot him in the one spot that was fatal to him.  So O-jeeg was able to lay down in the ground and die peacefully, and now you can see the Fisher in the stars.

(Plough Constellation Wikipedia)

The Fairy Bride - Once there was a lovely girl named Neen-i-zu, who was the only daughter of the tribe chief.  She was very much loved by her parents.  Her parents did worry for her because she would wander into the forest and be there for hours.  When she came back she would always have a dazed looked in her eyes.  Her mother worried that she would not be able to marry and settle down like the other girls were.  There were said to be mischievous fairies called Puk-Wudjies living in the sand hills where Neen-i-zu walked.  No one had ever actually seen these fairies but everyone knew that they lived nearby.  Many fisherman had been victim of the fairies tricks.  Neen-i-zu wanted to find the fairies and have them take her to Happy Land.  So she spent many days trying to search for them in the woods.  One day she sat in the woods and sang herself a little song.  After she finished, she thought she heard the Puk-Wudjies repeating her song.

The Fairy Bride (cont.) - Neen-i-zu stayed in the forest longer than she should have because she tried to find the Puk-Wujies.  When she went home, her mother told her that she wanted her to marry a hunter.  Neen-i-zu said she knew who her mother was talking about but she did not want to marry him because he only thought about hunting.  Neen-i-zu then argued with her mother about whether or not she should marry and if Neen-i-zu knew what was best for herself.  Then her mother picked a day for her to marry this man, even though Neen-i-zu did not like him.  On the day of the wedding, Neen-i-zu prepared for the wedding.  She went out one last time to the grove to say good-bye.  Suddenly there was a slight shadow over the sun.  After some time went by, Neen-i-zu had not returned.  the guests went to look for her but she had disappeared.  The hunter came back with a strange story that he had seen Neen-i-zu with a man that had to be a fairy.  So she became a bride after all.