Princess Isabella
In a kingdom tucked away in the highest mountains lived a little
princess named Isabella. Princess Isabella lived with her parents, the King and Queen, on the tallest mountain overlooking the kingdom. Isabella and her parents were the only ones
that lived in the tallest mountain, alongside the trees and animals. Her parents moved her away from the village
when she was born, because they had heard story after story about princesses being harmed or taken, and they didn’t want to take a chance of that happening.
As Isabella grew older and older she grew lonelier and
lonelier..
Isabella loved her parents, but those were the only real
people that she ever came in contact with, unless it was time for the doctor to
make his monthly trip to give the princess her check-up. Not only was Isabella isolated from the
village; her parents gave her certain boundaries, and she could only travel so
far away from the castle. Isabella loved
to be outdoors climbing trees, feeling the grass between her toes, and smelling
all the beautiful flowers, but she always wondered what went beyond her
limit. Isabella was never sure what would happen to her if she were to go past her boundaries. Her parents always just told her that there was nothing special about going any farther, and that it would be a waste of time for her.
The closest thing to a best friend Isabella were her
dolls and the animals that roamed the castle and the castle yard.
Every day she would take time to visit all of her animal friends. The first stop of the day was the
caterpillars and ladybugs. She would
always bring them a piece of lettuce for them to eat, and they would always
compliment how beautiful they were. Next
she would visit her pet pigs and horses.
One of her favorite things to do was comb and braid her horses’ hair, and
they loved her so much for that, they would tell her stories of what was beyond
her boundaries of the kingdom. The pigs were one of her favorite animals
because they would tell her funny jokes and she would roll around in the mud
with them (even though her mother hated that).
Lastly she would bring carrots to all the bunnies and they would cuddle
with her with their oh so soft fur. The
only animal she wasn’t allowed to be friends with were the birds. Her father, the King, told her that they are evil and will trick you into danger. She listened to her father and never
listened to the birds until one day a yellow bird told the princess that he
would take her beyond her boundaries and have her back before sun was down.
Because Isabella was
lonely and dreamed of the land beyond her limits, she quickly agreed and ran off
with the bird for an adventure. The bird
was showing her all sorts of new things she had never seen before. She got to see a pond and talked to the fish
about what it is like to swim she smelled new flowers and climbed new
trees. It was starting to get dark and
the princess suggested that they head back to the castle, but the bird insisted
on eating some berries before they headed back.
The bird told Isabella that he must fly to get the berries and that he
would be back shortly. She was to wait for him in that exact spot. As she waited, she started to hear the bush
leaves crumble, so out of curiosity she looked in the bush to see what was
making the noise. As she pulled back the
leaves she saw a little squirrel that told her that the bird was only planning
on killing her with poisoned berries, and that she must follow him back to the
castle. Isabella was surprised to hear
this because she had such a nice day with the bird she couldn't believe that he
was evil.
The sun was almost down, and she remembered what her father
said about the birds being evil, so she decided to follow the squirrel back
home. The squirrel rushed the princess
back so that the bird couldn't stop them before she reached the castle. Once they reached the front step of the
castle Isabella thanked the trustworthy squirrel and told him to come back and
that they could be friends.
After the princess's adventure with the bird she realized
that there is evil in the world, and understood why her parents brought her to
the kingdom. She became content with all
of her animal friends and never wished to leave her boundaries again.
Author Note:
This story is based off PDE Ramayna part
C. In my story the animals help Isabella, and even
save her life. There isn't much about my story that relates to PDE Ramayna and none of the characters are the same and the story line
does not fit the theme of Ramayna. One of the only resemblance is that some of the animals in Ramayana were
helpful. A squirrel helped Rama and his army of monkeys and bears who were building a bridge. The squirrel brought tiny pebbles and grains of sand to add to the bridge. I always find it fun when you
can bring an animal to life with communication, and this is why I chose to
create my story around helpful and evil animals. This is a similarity between my story and the Ramayana. Jatayu and Sampati, the monkeys, the bears, were all animals who communicated. The purpose of this story is to show and
learn from Princess Isabella that rules are sometimes made for our safety, and
that we should respect them even if we don't understand them. Princess Sita learned a terrible lesson when she stepped outside of the circle boundary that Lakshmana drew around her. Both Princess Sita and Isabella learn how important it is to follow rules. Learning to follow rules is an important
lesson for a young child; this lesson is something that is carried throughout
life, and once you learn this lesson life can get a little more organized. The
image I chose is to represent the castle that Isabella and her family lived in
looking over the village. I picked this
because I thought it offered a good setting to picture when reading about
Isabella and her adventure.
Hi Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your story! I read the Narayan version of The Ramayana and I don't remember this part, so it was neat to see some of the ways in which the versions differ. I appreciated the detail you gave in this story about Princess Isabella's life. The tale reminded me a lot of the Rapunzel fairytale, but the different ending was interesting. It reminds us that while we might not always like having to stay without boundaries, they're often in place for our own protection! It also sort of mirrors the story of Sita being kidnapped, though in that case, it was really Rama's fault for leaving her rather than her fault for wandering away.
A note about format: Google does not count as an adequate image source; it's much better to include a direct link to the original image source than just a link to the Google search results.
This story was very detailed and I enjoyed it a lot. I thought you did a great job explaining all the little details about the animals, her parents, and what she does within the boundaries. I also thought it was a unique story because of how you incorporated all of the animals. It was a good moral of the story because you should always listen to your parents or wise adults.
ReplyDeleteThis story made me think of a bedtime story or fable that you would tell a child as they are falling asleep. It was sweet and somewhat sad; it made me think of Rupunzle at first! It would have been interesting to have the story reveal in some way that the bird was in fact evil instead of Isabella having to rely on the word of the squirrel. While the squirrel was trustworthy, it would have been cool to have it revealed to the princess first hand. Either way it was a really great story; very engaging, easy to follow, and had a message to learn from at the end.
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah!
ReplyDeleteGreat story. The only thing that I caught that was distracting was in the third paragraph you mispelled the word how with hoe. The image you chose is great, it is nice to picture while reading the story. I think you did a great job of the good vs. evil theme. I can also feel the human struggle we all face, of what lies just outside of our comfort zone.
I love your story Sarah! I feel so sad for the lonely Isabella. It must be hard growing up by yourself with no friends besides the animals. Although Disney movies do tend to romanticize the idea of animals with princesses. It is sad that the one time she leaves the castle to explore it is by someone who wants to do her harm. The world is full of so many wonderful things she has been missing out on. You did have a few spelling errors in there though. Overall, great job with your story.
ReplyDeleteGood afternoon Sarah!
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I really enjoy your format. I like the colors you have selected for your background, side colors, and font. The font is also a good size and type and easy to read.
Your story was great! I truly enjoyed your story about princess Isabella and the good and evil animals. I almost did a storybook over animals, so your story was very exciting for me to read!
There were just a couple of spelling mistakes, but overall they did not stop the flow.
I do have a couple of questions. Did the princess consider if the squirrel were the evil one convincing her it was the bird? Did she ever get to get away from her castle with no one to see but her parents ever?
I don't know if you have already considered these, but I thought of them while reading. Have a great day!
Thank you for sharing this story, Sarah. It had the feel of a classic fairy tale, which took me back to when I was a child. You did an excellent job keeping the story lighthearted and whimsical. By portraying all of the animals as kind and Isabella's father as overprotective, I actually believed, along with Isabella, that the bird was trustworthy. When the squirrel informed us that the bird was in fact evil, it came as a surprise. Great job setting this up.
ReplyDeleteThe layout of your blog and organization of your story is readable. No complaints there. I did find a few spelling and punctuation errors, but nothing that reading out loud can't expose. If I could suggest one thing, it would be to break up the larger paragraphs into smaller ones. This makes it easier for readers to follow and to go back and find specific passages.
Overall, I enjoyed the story. It depicted a classic princess-in-castle environment and maintained the lightheartedness that you would expect to find in such a story. You also did a wonderful job progressing to the conflict that Isabella faces.
Hi Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI really loved getting to read your story! I hope I get to read more of your stories in the future. I think you did a fantastic job with picking your picture. I feel like it really helps the reader imagine where Isabella lives. You did a great job at describing everything and making it very clear. I feel like I could definitely picture every event that you were communicating. I really liked how you made your story have a life lesson. I feel that this could be a great story for a child! I think we all have to eventually realize that rules are set in place for a specific reason (whether it is the hard way or not). The only thing that I could really suggest would be to add dialogue to help the characters have some more personality. I loved reading your story! Thank you for sharing!