Storytelling Week 12: Ashley's Regret

Author's Note: This week's storybook post was inspired by one of the many tales of The Twenty Jatakas Tales.  I focused my story off of the different stories in reading A named “The Golden Feathers.” This story is about a family who is very poor and the father set out to find riches to return with.  While he was finding fortune to bring back to his family he was turned into a goose with golden feathers.  He went back to his house and gave his family one feather telling them to sell it and that he would be back.  Before he retuned one time the mother decided that they should take all the feathers in case he never returned.  When this happened all the feathers turned white and were worthless.  This is a good lesson about learning that you have enough and to not be greedy.  The mother also learns that it isn’t smart to take advantage of the help being received.  Read my story about Kate and Ashley.  Here Ashley learns how important it is to not take advantage of people when they offer to help. 

 Ashley's Regret 

Kate Maxwell has always been one of the smartest girls in school.  Not only was she smart but also she was extremely nice and loved helping people. Ashley on the other hand struggled with school but was extremely popular.  Kate and Ashley lived on the same street so they saw a lot of each other out of school as well as in school.  

They weren't much of friends expect maybe a wave here or there or a “Hello” while passing.  One day during school Kate found Ashley crying in the girls bathroom.  Kate being the nice person she asked her what was wrong.  Ashley explained to her that she was failing her algebra class, and that if she did fail she wouldn’t be able to cheer on the squad.  Kate knew that very upsetting to Ashley since she was cheer caption and all.  Kate offered to help Ashley in her math class every day after school.  

Every day Kate would walk down to Ashley’s house with her algebra homework.  At first Ashley was very interested in learning what Kate was trying to teach her.  She took notes and was very organized with all the information Kate was giving her.  It didn't take long for Ashley’s grades to start to rise.  Once this happened Ashley figured out that since she took her homework over to Kate’s house every day she could trick Kate into doing the problems for her.  Kate thought she was helping Ashley but really she was just doing the problems for Ashley.  Ashley started to take advantage of Kate and found sneaky ways to get Kate to do the problem for her as a demonstration for that type of math problem.  Ashley would make comments like “I just don’t understand” with the most confused and sad look on her face.  This would make Kate feel bad for so she would tell her not to worry and show her how to do the problem.  Ashley stopped taking notes and worked more on her sad puppy dogface instead of learning how to do the problems. 

Ashley’s final grade for algebra all depended on her final test for the class.  Since Ashley was making good grades on all her homework, she didn’t even stop to think that she would be on her own for the test.  The test day came and when Ashley received her test on her desk she quickly realized that she didn't know how to do any of the problems because she was having Kate do them all for her.  Ashley ended up failing the test and the class, resulting in her not being able to be a cheerleader anymore.  Ashley regretted not paying more attention to Kate while she was helping her, but has learned to never take advantage of help that was being offered. 

(Photo Source) 

 Bibliography: The Golden Feathers tale in the book The Twenty Jataka Tales by Noor InayatRetold by Noor Inayat.  
 

Storytelling, Week 3- 'Princess Isabella

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. 

((The Castle looking over the Village, Photo Source)

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.   

Bibliography:

 The source from this story, “Princess Isabella” is Public Domain Edition: Ramayana Part C. 

Week 14 Storytelling: Britt's Breakup

Authors Note: This week for my reading diary I watched Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues.  This is a full-length animated version of the story of Ramayana focusing on Sita.  This film is put together from three modern Indian narrators who make it quite interesting with their own perspectives on the story.  Part of this film also follows the story of Nina and Dave a more modern couple than Ramayana and Sita.  When Dave breaks up with Nina over an email while she is in New York got my story creating skills thinking.  Instead of making my story over Ramayana and Sita I decided to change the focus on Dave and Nina’s relationship.  Dave broke Nina’s heart.  She even begged for him to come back to her.  In my story Britt grows from her breakup with Connor a lot more than she thought she could.  Read here how I changed Britt’s life from being sad to being confident and loving herself.

Britt’s Breakup

There once was a girl who’s name was Britt.  Britt grew up in a very loving home where she had everything she needed provided for her.  Her parents loved her and supported her in anything she wanted to do.  She also had two older brothers that loved her so much they would do anything to keep her safe.  Her family is the typical American family that took vacations in the summer, and stayed very active during the school year with extra curricular activities.  Britt’s favorite extra curricular activity was film making.  Everywhere her and her family went she was always recording their every more.  In the morning she would record her brothers getting ready and eating breakfast.  She would always record her mother making dinner or her father working in the workshop.  Wherever Britt was there was a camera in her hands recording something. 

After high school Britt continued her dream of film making in New York City.  She was accepted into the school of film at the University of New York. Britt was very excited about this but was sad to leave her parents and brothers.  She was scared to leave her comfort and safety of her family, but her dream of film was much bigger than her fear so she moved eight hours away to follow her dream.  Her first semester at school Britt meet a guy named Connor.  Connor was also a film student for the university so it didn’t take them long to connect.  Connor eventually asked Britt on a date and they both realized that they had strong feelings for each other.   After their first date they hung out with each other almost everyday.  Four years of dating and school had passed and they found themselves at graduation together.  Connor had gotten an internship in Los Anglos and left the day after graduation.  Britt never got a job offer so she stayed in New York trying to build up her resume. 

Two weeks after Connor had left he called Britt and told her that they needed to take a break and explore things for themselves.  Britt didn't agree with Connor and tried to convince him to try the long distance relationship a little longer, but Connor wasn’t having it.  This left Britt very sad and depressed.  She never wanted to leave her apartment.  All she did was day dream about Connor.  After being broken up for three weeks Britt was scrolling though Pinterest when she came across the quote:

“The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot more forward.”

-Steve Maraboli

This quote inspired Britt to get up out of bed and start with a new adventure.   She updated her resume, and went out looking for a job.  After two week of searching she landed an internship with one of the biggest film directors in New York.  Her life started to look happy again. In fact Britt had never been so happy in her life.  She realized she didn't need Connor to make her happy, and that as long as she is doing what makes her happy she will be able to get up every morning and move forward with her life. 

(Photo Source) 

Bibliography: SitaSings the Blues by Nina Paley, 2008. 

Storytelling Week 11: No Belly Button Bert

Authors Note:  This week I based my story off of one of the Jataka tales from the book “The Giant Crab and Other Tales from old India” The story from the book I focused on is “Lacknose” this is about a gardener who had no nose.  There were three boys that came into his garden asking for flowers, but only one of them got one because of honesty.  My story follows along with a man who has no belly button and owns the most glorious pool in the town.  Everyone wanted to swim in this mans pool, but you will see that only some people will be able to swim in the pool.   These people were allowed and welcomed to swim in the pool because the man with no belly button felt that they were genuine people.  Read the story to see the different types of people that try to come swim, but the man doesn't allow in because not genuine enough. 

No Belly Button Bert 

(Representing Bert: Picture Source) 

There once was a pool boy named Bert who had no belly button.  Bert was an excellent pool cleaner.  He knew all the tricks to getting the pool to be in tip top shape.  He loved cleaning pools but he never took his shirt off due to not having a belly button so he always just got his shirt soaking wet while cleaning. Bert was embarrassed that he didn't have a belly button and couldn’t wait until he had his own pool. He spent many hours a day for many years to earn enough money to build his own pool.  While Bert’s pool was being built many of his neighbors saw how extravagant his pool would be.  They saw slides, a high and low diving board, and big red comfortable tanning chairs being moved into his backyard.

Bert didn't have many friends because they thought he was strange for not having a belly button.  Everyone in Bert’s neighborhood had pool parties, but he was never invited.  It didn't take long for his neighbors to start being friendly to him after they noticed how enormous of a pool he was going to have.  Bert became frustrated with this because he knew that it was only because he was going to have an extravagant pool.  Bert decided that he would have a pool party but is only going to invite those who don't care that he doesn't have a belly button.  Two weeks before his pool was finished he put a huge sign in his yard promoting his pool party, and that it is invite only.  Neighbor after neighbor would come up asking for an invite to the pool party.  Bert only awarded invites to those who approached him in the right way. 

His first neighbors that came up to him brought a doctor along with them.  They explained that the doctor was willing to look into getting him a belly button. But Bert thought to himself how ridiculous of them to think that someone will be able to give him a belly button, so he shooed them away with no invite.  His second neighbors came baring gifts.  Bert enjoyed all the yummy treats they brought except for these cookies that were made to look like humans in swimsuits that had no belly buttons! Bert thought to himself how foolish of these people to come and mock me, and sent them on their way with no invite.  The third neighbor that came to visit him didn't have any gifts but the truth.  The neighbor approached Bert and let him know how sorry he had been for treating him like an outcast, when in reality he was just like everyone else.  Bert appreciated the honest apology and invited the third neighbor to come and swim.  

Bibliography:  Rouse, W.H.D. “The Giant Crab and Other Tales from Old India.” Illustrated by W. Robinson.  Release Date: May 5, 2011.