Indian Epics by Reid

After reading through these stories, the one I'd like to focus on is The Golden Goose. It's a very simple story that can be pretty powerful, especially with kids. In this story, a golden goose sees a family in need and decides that it will help by shedding its feathers for them to sell. By doing this, it helps them live comfortably. Worried that the goose will not come back and starting to get greedy, the mother of the two daughters decides to catch the goose and pluck all its feathers. The daughters do not want to harm it, but the mother does it anyways. The feathers turn white and are not worthless, and the goose never comes back. It's such a simple lesson in not taking good things for granted, as well as not harming other living beings. Out of all the stories in Part A, this is the one I could retell in a fun, modern way! Bibliography: The Golden Goose by Ellen C. Babbitt. A man and a golden goose

Microfiction versions of The Elephant Girly-face 6 Word Story Elephant hear, elephant do, it's simple! Two Sentence Story The sweet, sweet elephant can quickly change His emotions, influenced by all, are great in range Author's Note: These microfictions are based off  The Elephant Girly Face by Ellen C. Babbitt. Going into these, I had only ever read one other microfiction, and never written one. Writing them based on an already short Jataka tale made it much easier. I tried to keep only the main point as to make it as short as possible, and I think it worked out pretty well! Lucy the Elephant

Today, my favorite story out of the second part of Babbitt's Jataka Tales was The Elephant Girly Face. I had read another student's story that was based off it, but hadn't read the original yet. In this story, king's elephant named Girly-face is known as one of the most peaceful and good elephants. One night outside her walls, some robbers talked about killing and stealing from people, so Girly-face assumed this is how they should act as well. The next morning, she kills her handler, then kills another person. The king is curious as to why, so he sends wise men to study him. In the end, they find out that if Girly-face is surrounded by good, he acts good. If surrounded by bad, he acts good. So after sending people to talk about how to be good and kind by him, he becomes the best elephant there ever was. This story does a great job covering how people act in the surroundings they grow up in. Someone born into a life of crime may never know what a life outside of crim

These short tales were a blast to read! Going through each one was a journey on it's own, but The Turtle Who Couldn't Stop Talking was by far my favorite. Not only was a lesson for the kids who may have this told to them, but it was just plain funny (sorry turtle). The story follows a simple event. A turtle is met by two geese who offer him an amazing new home to live. All he has to do is keep his mouth shut. At first I thought (based on the title) that this turtle would brag all about his new home, and that his showing off would come back to bite him. In this story, it's not the case because not talking meant not opening your mouth, literally. On the next day, the geese come by with a stick between them allowing the turtle to grab on with his mouth. As long as he doesn't talk, he wont open his mouth and fall. While flying over a town, the kids comment on how ridiculous this turtle is, and the turtle feels a bit offended so he begins to talk back. But talking back mea

Preparations of War: Some people want peace, some people want war. The Pandavas send a messenger offering peace, and it's almost accepted, but Duryodhana refuses anything that's not war. The Battle Begins: Arjuna (Pandu) is hesitant to attack his uncle and cousins, but decides to fight. For the first time in this story, Dryodhana is actually winning! Oh no! Day two begins and The Pandavas bounce back. Soon after, Bhima (Pandu) slays many of his cousins, while Duryodhana escapes. Bhisma and Drona Fall: While there is a lack of celestial beings in this story, there is still destiny. Shikhandin was destined to kill Bhishma. The fight was everything but epic. Bhishma would not fight as Shikhandin was born a woman, so after letting his guard down, he is peppered with arrows and the cousins weep over his as he dies. Again, Duryodhana is asked for peace, but STILL REFUSES. After many confusions of a son named the same as an elephant, Drona is then killed in battle. This at last le

For this week, I've chosen Richard Wilson's version called The Indian Story Book: The Five Tall Sons of Pandu . I chose this as it is a retelling but with no mention of gods or celecstial weapons, so it must portray the brothers as some very impressive warriors! I'm excited to see how this one goes. The Young Princes: Pandu has five sons, Arjuna being the best warrior of them all after training. Pandu's brother Dhritarashtra becomes king with his 100 sons after Pandu dies, and the tension begins to build between the cousins early. To show off their skills and decide the best fighter, a tourney is made and they face off. Bhima (son of Pandu) and Duryodhana get heated and the battle has to be called off. While Arjuna shows off, he is challenged by a nameless stranger (Karna). Karna is able to keep up perfectly with him and out of everyone there, KARNA is chosen to become the new king of Huga (an area controlled by Dhritarashtra). Draupadi's Swayamvara: Yudhishthir

Looking back I'm pretty happy with the work I've done so far! I'm definitely most proud of how my storybook is coming along and I can't wait to get more stories out there. My weekly routine could be better because it's unstable. Most of the time, I do the assignments while I'm at work as I work in an advising office, so I have time. Some days I don't have time at work to finish it and it throws me off. I'm looking to do more extra credit to catch up on what I've missed soon! Looking forward, I'm hoping I can get a better schedule down where I won't miss assignments. Eventually, I want to try writing in something other than prose, but that may come later on. For my website, I may change the formatting around so the pictures for the banners are better visible to the readers. ( cheezburger )

So far the comments and feedback from other students has been great! I was a little worried going in that people wouldn't enjoy the things I write, but seeing people's reactions has been very fulfilling. The comments that help me the most are the ones that tell me favorite parts from my stories, but also challenge them a little. Seeing what people like helps me decide how my next story will go. As for feedback out, I've been trying to find at least one thing to question about other people's posts. I'm hoping this helps them go back and think about why they made a decision in their post, or it could even solidify their decision. I do feel like I've gotten to know some people, especially with their introductions being paired to the posts we comment on. I like that if I'm interested in someone's post, I can quickly get around their blogs! To make my feedback more useful, I think I need to do more than just ask questions of the writers, but also go a b

Looking back at what I've done so far in the class, it was interesting to see all the different topics I've covered in my stories. From little kids to adults to evil demons, I seem to have got it all! While I've missed a story here and there, the stories have been by far my favorite part. Writing them is always just so fun and stretches my mind in ways I haven't gotten to experience in a while. My biggest accomplishment has to be the first story for my storybook. Being able to tell an alternate history like that was a little harder than I expected. i didn't want characters to act too out of line, so making sure all the build up to the final events seemed realistic was a challenge. Getting it finished, I was very happy with how it turned out and I'm excited for more people to read it! So far, the Ramayana was my favorite reading was the Ramayana. Many of the characters I had heard about in passing, but not had the time to look into, so it was awesome to see w