Reading Notes: Fables of Bidpai Part B

Reading Notes:

Bibliography: Fables of Bidpai, Maude Dutton

·      Two friends were journeying together.

·      They came across a broad stream at the foot of a hill.

·      They decided to stay there to rest.

·      After they ate and slept they woke up to leave and found a white stone with a letter on it.

·      The letter said, there was a banquet but they had to be bold and get it.

·      It told them to swim across the stream and swim to the other side. There they will find a lion carved out of marble. They had to carry that statue up the mountain without stopping.

·      This will supposedly bring them happiness.

·      One of them was delighted and he cried out of excitement.

·      The other was concerned that it wasn’t true.

·      The positive one was up to try it and said he would go alone.

·      They hugged and one rode off and the other took the task at hand.

·      He started swimming and he found himself in a whirlpool.

·      He made it to the other side and rested a few seconds before lifting the lion and running up the mountain.

·      He was standing in front of a beautiful city.

·      A ton of people were running out of the city to him out of excitement.

·      He became the king of the city because theirs had died and that’s how they decide a new one.

·      This was to make sure a king was fearless and of heart.

Two Travelers

Reading Notes: The Fables of Bidpai

The Three Fish:

Bibliography: Maude Dutton, The Fables of Bidpai

• ·         There was a pond far from the road.
• ·         Three fish lived in it and were content with life.
• ·         One fish always used his wit
• ·         The second one used his sometimes
• ·         The third never used his wit.
• ·         Two fishermen saw the large fat fish and wanted to go grab their nets to catch them.
• ·         All the fish heard and laid in terror.
• ·         The first fish swam to the outlet of the pond to get away.
• ·         The fisherman returned and missed one of the fish.
• ·         There was no escape for the other two because the fishermen stopped the outlet.
• ·         The second fish who sometimes used his wit floated belly up and when the fishermen caught him they threw him back because they thought he was dead.
• ·         The last fish swam to the bottom and was caught.
• ·         He was served at the kings table that night. 

Three Fish

Story Planning: The Red Bud Tree

There once was a long lost tale of a tree that not only was the most beautiful tree in all of the land but also had healing powers...

Three young Princess’s used to sit in bed every night and ask their mother to tell them the tale of the red bud tree. The mother would tell them all about a tree with such beauty and powers that it could heal anything and everyone that just smelled its beautiful buds. She told them about all the different cases where peasants and royalty would travel miles and miles into the woods and through the mountains until they came across the beautiful pink and red tree. They requested this story for ten years no matter how many times they had heard it, and every time their mother would be delighted to tell them again. One night they were patiently waiting for their mother who never came in. They ran to their father and asked where she was and why she wasn't there to tell them the story. The king responded with the sad news that their mother had fallen ill and probably would not make it much longer.

The girls went to their room and cried and while they were crying and holding each other the oldest piped up and exclaimed that she had the best idea... "We will go find the red bud tree!"

Author’s notes: I wanted to plan a story that was a little different than the original Red Bud Tree story. I think my rendition of it will be a little bit more in depth than the original and have a better point. In the original the three Princes separately went to find this tree just to be able to see it. When they thought it looked different and started arguing the King cleared up the argument and told them they went at different seasons and to not be concerned. I enjoyed the idea of the nature and adventure and that’s what I hope to focus most of my time on. 

Bibliography: Ellen C. Babbitt, More Jataka Tales

Red Bud Tree

Reading Notes: More Jataka Tales Part B

 Reading Notes:

·      Beauty and Brownie were young deer that lived with their family and herd in a forest.

·      The dad wanted them to be careful when the corn was ripening in the fields.

·      He asked them to each take their own herd of deer.

·      He explained how the humans use corn to get the deer and then trap them and take them away.

·      The old deer stayed in the forest including their parents.

·      They were instructed where to go and to come back when all the crops are cut.

·      They had to go at night and be careful to not let the hunters see them.

·      Beauty did everything instructed perfectly and made it.

·      Brownie forgot to go at night they also traveled near the hunters.

·      Brownie had many of her herd killed because of these things.

·      Beauty again did great and brought them home no problem.

·      Brownie did the opposite and only brought a couple back home to the forest.

     Bibliography: More Jataka Tales, Ellen C. Babbitt

Deer Herd

Reading Notes: More Jataka Tales Part A

Reading Notes:

• ·      Four princes heard a story about a Red-Bud tree.
• ·      They had never seen one before but longed to be the first.
• ·      The oldest prince asked his driver to take him to the woods.
• ·      It was too really in the spring to see any buds on it.
• ·      Later that season the son went to see it and this time there was a ton of red buds.
• ·      The tree was covered in green leaves when the third son went to see it.
• ·      Lastly the youngest begged to go see it and saw little bean pods.
• ·      He ran back to his brothers and cried saying he saw the tree!
• ·      They all argued about it because it looked different to all of them.
• ·      The king stepped in and explained that each season is different and so they had seen the same tree but all at different times.

     Bibliography: Ellen C. Babbitt, More Jataka Tales

Red-Bud Tree

Portfolio: The Crab and His Friends

Crater Lake - Oregon

There once was a giant Crab that lived in the deep waters of Crater Lake in Oregon. He was a sad Crab but everyone only saw him as dangerous and mean.  He didn’t understand why everyone hated him without giving him the chance.  Typically what happened when he tried to meet new friends was he would show his face and anyone that saw him would be fearful of his size. This Crab was so big he was similar to the size of a fairly big truck. Shortly after one of the animals would panic, they would end up drowning and while he was trying to save them everyone thought he was attacking and eating them and so, over time, they built up this hatred towards him. Every day for years he tried to make friends and all the other animals still assumed he was trying to hurt them until he thought of a new way to show them he was their friend. He would sneak up on them and then they would have to listen to him. So, instead of showing his face he would swim deep under the water until he got to them and he would tap them on the foot and when he did that he realized he got the same ugly response from them. He was so hurt and sad that he gave up and decided to live alone forever in his lake.

One morning a young Elephant slowly wobbled down to the lake with his mother and herd. This was his first time down to the lake and he was so excited. When he got there his mother sat him down and gave him the long lecture on how to be safe around the water and to look out for the Crab. "The key, sweetheart is to stay in between the Elephants on guard. If you stray past them it will be hard for anyone to save you from the giant Crab that lurks in the deep waters."
 The Elephant listened impatiently while dreaming of how cold the fresh water would feel on his back. He just kept repeating, "Yes mother." Finally, his mother told him to go have fun. He noticed the big elephants stood guard watching for the rest of the pack as he ran into the water without a care in the world. As he ran he noticed the Crab far away to the west just sitting and watching everyone as they played and had a blast. He decided he was going to walk over and say hi, even though his mother gave him strict instructions not to. He slowly started walking that direction, making sure his mom did not see him slip away.

He carefully walked up to the Crab and with a brave voice said, “Hello, Mr. Crab! My name is Erik the Elephant and I wanted to know if you wanted to play with me.”

The Crab slowly turned around and with tears in his eyes said, “Are you sure you want to play with me? No one really likes me and I don’t want to cause problems.”

The Elephant laughed and said, “Of course we want you! Come on!” From that moment on not only were the Elephant and the Crab the best of friends, but also everyone respected the Crab and realized that he was not mean. The Crab got to explain himself and apologized for all of the problems that he had caused in the past. The Crab was finally able to go to bed that night knowing he had friends and was no longer alone in this world.

Authors Note's: The original piece that gave me the idea for this piece was very similar but also very opposite. It showed the crab as a mean and harmful crab that killed the elephants until the elephants finally stood up for each other and killed the crab. The elephants ended up jumping on the crab's shell and killed him so that he could do no more harm. I really enjoyed this piece because I took it from the crab actually being a jerk and really hurting everyone in sight to being a nice crab and not having any friends. By having the roles reversed we were able to see a unique twist to the classic story that is told in India and other countries. It was more difficult than I thought it would be at first because I wanted to keep the general idea of the story. I chose to still have animals die but instead of him drowning and eating them you can see he was trying to be nice and his actions were just misinterpreted. I think the moral of the story is don’t judge a book by its cover and always accept people for who they are. You never know when you are going to run across a crab in your life that could end up being your best friend. I am really enjoying writing children’s stories because I never get to be creative with my writing. I am always writing research or informational papers and so this option has been really fun. The image had not a ton of thought behind it but I thought it kind of fit just because it showed a happy crab with some friends with him.  

Bibliography: The Giant Crab and Other Tales From India; William Henry Dunham Rouse

Crab and His Friends