Portfolio Guide

My portfolio consists of different stories all told in diary format.  Enjoy!

Crow Diaries

Cat and Fox Diaries

Diary of a Maiden

Suzy's Diary

Prince Fredrick Diaries

Storytelling Week 13: Prince Fredrick Diaries

Dear Diary,

Being a prince rules (get it?) so hard.  Seriously, it is so awesome.  I get to boss people around and make everyone do everything I need for me.  I'm not even writing this myself right now!  My personal assistant, more like servant, Heinrich is writing all of this.  The poor chump.  Sucks to suck!  It's not my fault I was born into royalty and live in the lap of luxury and riches.  Anything I want, I get.  I would say the world is my oyster and I its pearl, but pearls are for commoners and far too below me.  Gross.  But we need commoners to do everything for us and to be the cogs in the machinery of the kingdom.  I can't wait to be king.  Until then, I will continue causing mischief and tormenting the castle's servants.

-Prince Fredrick

Dear Diary,

UghGh the castle is SO boring today!  All of the servants are too busy to be bothered by any of the pranks I've played on them and Heinrich is helping my parents today and not me.  What does he expect me to do all day?!  I've had to do EVERYTHING myself today!  I can't even believe I'm writing this with my own hand today.  It is just awful.  I guess I'll go take my horse out and roam around the kingdom until I find something to do.  Maybe something, anything, remotely interesting will happen and I can make Heinrich write it for me when I get back.

-Prince Fredrick

---------

Well, that was a total bust.  This kingdom blows.  Where are all the young people and fun things?  And other nobles?  I swear everyone here is a commoner.  I did meet this super spiteful fairy today.  She told me she was going to turn me into a frog for my terrible behavior and personality.  She told me I was selfish and arrogant, and that I need to be humble and generous.  She told me I would stay that way until a princess takes me out of the spring that I will have to live in, lets me eat from her plate, and sleep upon her bed for three nights in a row.  As if.  Crazy fairy.  She doesn't even know me!  I am the best and everyone loves me!  Even if she were to turn me into a frog, it's not like I would be one for very long.  Ugh, I am just so annoyed with her.  Maybe I can find her again tomorrow and find a way to throw her into the pillory.  That will show her!

Goodnight,
-Prince Fredrick

Dear Diary,
My life is over.  I am a disgusting, slimy, and probably wart-ridden frog.  GROSS.  And to make it all worse, Heinrich didn't know who I was since I didn't tell him what happened yesterday, and he almost killed me!  When I get changed back, he is going to get it.  How dare he try to kill me!  So now I am in the disgusting spring not too far from the castle.  How could anyone live like this?  It's vile.  Hopefully some girl will find me soon and change me back so I can destroy that stupid fairy.

-Prince Fredrick

Dear Diary,
Today, after several months of me not finding a princess, a young girl was playing with her ball close to the spring.  She had been throwing it high up into the air and catching it.  She threw it way too high the last time and was unable to catch it so it rolled right into the spring and almost hit me in the head.  Rude.  I heard her crying like a big baby so I asked her what was wrong even though it was clearly obvious.  So I made a deal with her that if I swam down and got her stupid ball for her, she would have to let me live with her, and eat off her plate, and sleep on her bed.  The silly girl believed it.  She agreed so I went down to get the ball.  When I gave it back to her, she ran away!  Um, miss, that was not what we agreed to. I will find her and make her keep her word.

Goodnight
-Prince Fredrick

Dear Diary,
I found the girl's house.  She closed the door in my face initially, but her father told her she had to keep her promise.  Then, she made me hop everywhere, as if I hadn't done enough of that already.  Whatever, I have one night down and only two to go. But since I left once it was light outside, I am going to sleep all day since she snored the whole night.  How can someone as lovely as she is make such a terrible noise?  The nerve of some people, I swear.

Good day
-Prince Fredrick

Dear Diary,
I went again to the girl's house for the second night in a row.  This girl needs some serious nose strips to help with that snoring; it's so unbecoming.  Luckily I was able to mostly sleep through it last night.

-Prince Fredrick

-----------

Well, I'm off to my last night!  Hopefully when light breaks tomorrow I will be back to my devilishly handsome self and won't ever have to hear this girl's snoring again.  She has started to grow on me a bit.  She's quite beautiful and very interesting.  Maybe will be friends.

Goodnight,
-Prince Fredrick

Dear Diary,
I couldn't sleep again last night.  Not because of her snoring, but because I actually like her.  When I woke up, I was human again and she was staring at me in awe.  I told her the whole story and proposed, and she said yes!  Sweet and loyal Heinrich came and brought the eight-horse coach.  He actually missed me and I surprisingly missed him too!  And all the other castle workers!  I can't wait to see them and introduce them to my beautiful fiancée!

-Prince Fredrick

                              Image: Illustration by Walter Crane (1912) in the un-textbook

Author's note:
This is from the Frog Prince story from the Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm LibriVox unit.  I was familiar with the frog prince story, but not this one.  I always knew it as the princesses trying to find her prince after he has been turned into a frog by a wicked witch for some reason that I can't remember.  The princess has to kiss all the frogs until she finds her prince.  In this story, the princess had it so easy.  She wasn't even looking for a prince.  She was by a spring one day and playing with a ball.  It accidentally rolls into the spring, but it is too deep for her to see and she starts to cry at her loss.  The frog - the prince who had been turned into a frog by a fairy for an unknown reason - offers to swim down to get it for her on the condition that she take him home and let him eat off her plate and sleep on her bed for three nights in a row.  That's it.  That sounds like a much better deal than kissing a bunch of frogs.  In the original story, there isn't an explanation as to why the prince was turned into a frog.  I thought it would be fun to give him some back story and give a reason to why he is being punished.  It's very similar to Beauty and the Beast but the prince is the only thing that is changed. Because I wrote it from his point of view, I didn't really keep too close to the original but I think the message is still the same: be nice and help others.

Bibliography:
The Frog Prince  from the Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm (LibriVox),
translated by Marian Edwards, with illustrations by Anning Bell (1912).

Storytelling Week 11: Suzy's Diary

Dear Diary,
Owen is finally coming to visit me tomorrow!  I feel bad that he has to drive all the way to Norman from Houston though.  I wish he could fly here so it would be faster.  I just can't wait to see him!  I wish we lived in the same place or that we both weren't so busy with work all the time.  He works at Conoco and is such a hard worker.  I miss working with him at Highland Dairy but Conoco is a much better place and he loves working there.  I feel so lonely at Highland without him there to brighten my day.  I just know things will get better and I will feel so much better once I see him tomorrow.

Goodnight,
-Suzy

Dear Diary,
Owen is coming today!  Eeeee I can't wait to see him!  He called me around 9 o'clock this morning, so if the traffic isn't as horrible as it usually is he should get here in the early afternoon! I really hope the construction isn't bad so he can get here quickly.  I have so many fun things planned for us!  I want to take him to the Oklahoma City Zoo since the weather is supposed to be really nice and sunny this weekend.  We're going to go to all of our favorite restaurants and just have the best weekend ever.  I better clean my apartment and get ready since he should be here in a few hours!

-Suzy

Dear Diary,
It is now 9 o'clock at night.  Owen left about twelve hours ago.  It only takes about six hours to get here from Houston.  I have called him several times and left several messages.  He hasn't called me back or texted me and I am really worried.  I've been watching the news to see if there have been any bad accidents on I-35 but I haven't heard anything.  Surely if something had happened to him I would have heard by now, right?  I hope his phone is on silent and there's just really bad traffic.  Or maybe he's lost.  I really hope he is okay and that he gets here soon.

Goodnight,
-Suzy

Dear Diary,
I couldn't sleep at all last night.  I don't even know why I tried.  I was so worried that I would fall asleep and Owen would call or finally show up and I wouldn't hear it.  I called his phone again and still no answer.  I called his mom too to see if she had heard anything and she hasn't either.  Now I feel bad for worrying her.  I don't know what to do.  I want to go look for him but I don't even know exactly where to look or where to start.  I'm also scared I'm going to find something I don't want to see. I think my best option is to call the police and report a missing person.

-Suzy

Dear Diary,
A month has gone by and the police haven't found anything.  It's like Owen disappeared into thin air.  Where could he be?  Why did he do this?  I am so sad and I don't know if I'll ever get over this.

-Suzy

Dear Diary,
OWEN IS HERE!  I don't know how but he is here!  He showed up last night while I was crying by the fireplace and put his arms around me.  I couldn't believe it was him!  I thought I was imagining things.  He hasn't told me all of the details but he said he drove through a tunnel, which terrified him, and the next thing he knew he couldn't get out.  He had no idea where he was at that point.  When he finally found the end of the tunnel, there was an inn, so he stopped to ask for directions.  He said the chubby man behind the desk was very friendly and showed him around.  Owen said he had only been there for a few hours and was completely unaware that he had been missing for a month.  I don't know if any of this is real but I am just so happy that he is here that I don't even care.

-Suzy

                                                          Image source: mythfolklore.blogspot
                                                   It is the image used in the story illustrated by William Pogány.

Author's note:
In the original story Suzy is actually Siwsi but I wanted to have easier names so the reader could focus on the story rather than trying to figure out how to pronounce names.  That is also why I changed Dol y Clochydd to Norman.  I also did that to make it modern and more relatable.  In the original story, it seems as though Owen and Siwsi live fairly close to each other since Owen is walking.  I chose to make Owen from Houston and have him drive because I thought it would make more sense to have him live relatively far away so Suzy would be excited to have him visit.  Also in the original story Owen falls into a lake and doesn't know how to swim and then meets a man at the bottom who shows him around and tries to get Owen to stay.  Since I decided to make Owen drive in my story, I didn't know what I should do that would make him get lost.  I thought having him go through a tunnel and finding an inn worked out well and still made sense.
I wanted to tell this story from Siwsi's point of view because I can't imagine expecting to see someone and then they go missing for a month.  It was kind of difficult at first, especially since it's a fairly short story, but I had a lot of fun writing it.

Bibliography:
Owen Goes a-Wooing from The Welsh Fairy Book by W. Jenkyn Thomas with illustrations by Willy Pogány (1908). 

Week 9 Storytelling: Diary of a Maiden

Dear Diary,

I went to the desert today like I always do to gather up some of my favorite purple fruits, the prickly pear.  I ended up staying way too long and it was dark before I even headed home.  It was kind of scary being all alone in the desert at night but also strangely peaceful and calm.  The stars were absolutely wonderful tonight!  They were so bright and sparkly.  There was one star that was just so beautiful and seemed so much bigger and closer to the earth than the others.  I stared at it the whole way home.  I even thought I saw it winking at me.  Is it possible to be in love with a star?  Am I crazy?

Goodnight.

Dear Diary,

I can't stop thinking about that star from the other night.  I've tried telling my friends about it but everyone just thinks I'm crazy.  I had a dream about it last night too.  In my dream, the star was actually a tall, handsome boy that was a sky dweller.  I must go back to the desert to see him tonight to make sure I'm not imagining things.  I really hope I'm not or else I will be so upset and embarrassed for falling in love with a star.  My friends will make so much fun of me if I tell them I had a dream about the star.  I wish someone understood what I was going through and actually believed me.  I guess I'll just go look at it some more.

Dear Diary,

I have been to the desert every night this week and the star is still there.  I swear it's so close to the earth I could practically reach out and grab it.  I just know my dream is right and that the star is actually a boy.  I wish we could be together.  I even went to the old witch to kill me in a way so that I would be able to join him in the sky.  She told me I was much too young and I must live out my life.  Does she not know what it's like to be in love?  She did tell me there was a way for me to live forever in the desert under the stars, but I don't know if I believe her.  I'll have to think about it and go back to her tomorrow.

Goodnight.

Dear Diary,
I have given it some thought and I really think I want to go back to the witch and let her change me.  I love the star so much.  I just know I wouldn't regret this decision whatever it may be.  But what if the star does not love me back?    Maybe I should go back to the desert tonight to see if I can tell whether or not he loves me back.

Dear Dairy,
I went to the desert last night and I truly believe the star loves me back!  I have decided to trust the witch a let her change me.  I wonder if I'll have the ability to switch back and forth, and what exactly she'll be changing me to since she never really told me.  Anyways, wish me luck!

Dear Diary,
I turned the little maiden girl into a a purple sage bush and the star came down and dusted her, turning the leaves white.  They will now be able to be together forever.  I hope I made the right decision.

-The witch

                                               Image source: National Geographic

Author's note:  This is the story The Maiden Who Loved a Star from The Tejas Legends unit.  I thought it was a really cute story.  It stood out to me and not for a particular reason really.  I think I liked it because it was so unusual - a human and a star falling in love.  I don't think we've read anything similar to this story in previous units so it was a nice change.  We have read several love stories but most of them were with humans or a mortal with a God but nothing like this.  I was also expecting the witch to kill her or do something evil rather than help her.  In the original the witch turns her into a cenisa, which is a bush with purple blossoms and white dusted leaves that is able to survive in the desert.  The white dusting comes from the star.  I didn't include the ending in my story since it's a diary and the girl wouldn't have been able to write once she was turned into the bush, so I used a diary entry from the witch because it was her idea to keep the girl alive rather than kill her.  I used this image of stars because who wouldn't fall in love looking at those?  They are so glittery it almost looks fake.  I didn't think the girl would fall in love with some run-of-the-mill star so that's why I chose this image.

Bibliography: Tejas and Other Indian Legends retold by Florence Stratton and illustrated by Bernice Burrough (1936).

Storytelling for Week 2: Cat and Fox Diaries

Dear Diary,

            Mr. Fox is one of my best friends even though he can be a bit much to handle at times. He can be really uppity and boastful.  We get along really well, but some days I just can’t handle him and would rather he just not bother me.  Today, he was being especially annoying.  Like, more annoying than usual, which is really hard to believe.  I was taking my regular midday nap in the sun, when he came over and started poking me, and yelling at me to wake up.  He even stepped on my tail! Ugh.  He woke me up for the most pointless reason too.  He ran all the way over just to tell me he learned a bunch of new tricks for escaping from his enemies and predators.  Like I care.  I only have one way of escaping that always works for me, and that’s all I need.  Why would you want so many options?  Whatever.  Then, out of no where, some dogs came.  I quickly climbed up the tree and hid high within the branches.  Mr. Fox was clearly having a hard time choosing which one of his tricks he would use as his escape method because the dogs found him.  They almost killed him too! Luckily for Mr. Fox, he only lost his tail.  Maybe now he’ll stick to one method that he knows really well.  And then maybe one day he'll finally learn to not bother me when I'm asleep; that'll be the day. 

-       Cat

Dear Diary,

            Today completely sucked and I am so glad it is finally over.  I can honestly say it was one of the worst days of my life.  I have been learning new tricks for escaping from my enemies and have spent countless hours practicing them.  Today, I finally perfected them.  I went over to Cat’s house to tell her all about it because I was so excited.  She's so good at everything, so I thought she would be happy that I found something I was good at.  When I got there, she was asleep, as per usual.  Does she do anything else?  Good grief.  So, I woke her up to tell her the exciting news.  She could not have been less interested.  She was so angry at me for bothering her during what was probably her tenth nap that day that she wasn’t even slightly happy for me.  I worked really hard learning these tricks!  I was trying to show her some of them when a bunch of dogs started running towards us.  I was so flustered that I couldn’t decide which trick I wanted to use.  By the time the dogs got there, it was too late for me to decide; they chased me until I found a hole to crawl into, but they bit off my tail!  Cat didn’t even try and help me!  I spent the rest of the afternoon in the emergency room getting stitches.  To make matters worse, I now have to sit on a donut for the next couple of weeks.  What am I going to do about my tail?

            - Mr. Fox

From Aesop's Illustrated by Milo Winter The Fox and the Cat

Author's Note: Aesop (Jacobs) >>> Dogs and Cats >>> The Fox and the Cat 

I thought I would try something different and write this story in diary form.  I've never written anything in this style, so it was a nice change.  In the original story, the fox is killed by the dogs because he could not decide what escape plan to use, and by the time he did choose it was much too late.  Since I wanted to write in diary form, I thought it was necessary to write a diary entry from both the cat and the fox's perspective to better tell the story.  Other than changing the ending, I think I kept to the story pretty well.  I think I kept the moral of the original story the same in mine as well, except that the fox in my story actually gets to learn from his lessons.  It was really fun writing a fable in this way since most of them are really short so this helped to expand.
This image is the one used in the Aesop (Winter) book.  The one used in the Aesop (Jacobs) book isn't as nice in my opinion and it's kind of busy because it tells another story in the image.  Plus, I really like Milo Winter's illustrations. 

Bibliography: Bibliography: The Fables of Aesop by Joseph Jacobs (1894)

Storytelling for Week 5: Crow Diaries

Dear Diary,

I am beyond annoyed.  If I weren't so nosey and just minded my own business, I wouldn't be so bothered.  Anyways, it all started when my beetle friend Susku married Mushu the mouse.  A beetle and a mouse.  Getting married.  Weird, right?  Whatever, as long as they're happy.  But Susku didn't even have really try to get Mushu to notice her.  I was flying around town when I saw her all dressed up, so I decided to perch myself on a nearby fence to see what the occasion was.  Then, Mushu popped out of his hole and asked where she was going and she told him that she was going to get married.

Intrigued, I moved to a closer shrub to hear more.

"Why don't you marry me?" he asked her.  Her only requests before agreeing to marry him were that she sleep in his arms and that he beat her with nothing stronger than his tale.  That's it?  He didn't even have to work for it and neither did she! Ugh.  So she left to go take a bath.  On her way home, she fell crossing the stream.  Mid-panic, she saw a farmer by the stream.  She told the farmer to go get Mushu and for him to tell Mushu to get a golden ladder to save her.  So mid-drowning she decides to be high-maintenance and demand to be saved with a GOLDEN ladder.  If it weren't gold, would she have refused to climb it?  Geez.  Of course, Mushu makes a golden ladder out of carrots and save her, and they go and get hitched.

Dear Diary,

Today has been the weirdest day and it's all because of Mushu and Susku.

I was flying around town as per my usual routine.  I decided to see how the newlyweds were doing and stopped by the closest shrub I could find without them noticing me.  Mushu asked Susku to make him some soup while he ran some errands.  Of course Susku obliged because she loves Mushu very much.  Everything was going really smoothly until a big gust of wind came rolling through.  The wind was so strong that it lifted her tiny body and she fell into the pot of soup and drowned.  I didn't realize she should couldn't swim and I was getting pretty bored watching her make soup that I didn't really notice she was drowning until it was too late.  Then, Mushu came home and found her; this is where the story gets really weird.  He found her and was obviously very heartbroken, so he throws ashes on his head.  Why?

I decided to head home.  As I was barely in the air, Mushu comes out of his house.  I didn't want him to know that I was witnessed the whole thing and could have saved his wife so I asked him what was wrong and why he was covered in ashes.  He responded, "Didn't you hear?  Susku drowned, and I poured ashes on my head."

I felt so horrible for witnessing the entire thing and not helping so I told him I was sorry for his loss and quickly flew to a tree and shook out my feathers because I felt so guilty.  But now I feel naked and weird, which is a small price to pay for the amount of guilt I have.  Then, the even nosier tree just had to know what was going on so I told her, "Susku drowned, Mushu poured ashes on his head, and I shook out my feathers."

The tree then shook out all of her leaves.  When the creek saw that the tree shook out all of her leaves, they also asked why because they hadn't heard.  The tree told the creek, "Susku drowned, Mushu poured ashes on his head, the crow shook out her feathers, and I shook out my leaves."

I kept trying to head home but it was difficult to fly without feathers.  I took a break on another branch when I noticed  that the creek turned muddy to pay its respect.  I thought that was very kind.  But being guilt-striken, I took off for home to be alone with my thoughts.  I made it a little further on down the road when  I noticed the creek was visiting the corn in the desert and told them why they were so muddy, "Susku drowned, Mushu poured ashes on his head, the crow shook out her feathers, the tree shook out her leaves, and we turned muddy."

I was sitting on a fence post when I noticed that the corn was very upset by the news and laid their heads on the ground.  I had no idea everything and everyone would be so affected by Susku's death.  I wish I would've realized she needed help.  Then the farmer saw his corn upside down and asked them why they were doing that.  "Susku drowned, Mushu poured ashes on his head, the crow shook out her feathers, the tree shook out her leaves, the creek turned muddy, and we laid our heads on the ground," replied the corn.

I was still sitting on the fence post to take a break when suddenly the farmer impaled himself with the handle of his shovel.  Another death all because of me!  Why did I have to be so nosey?
Then, his daughter came outside to give him his lunch when she found him.  She threw her father's lunch of curd all over herself because of what he had done, and went and told her mother.  I flew to the open window in their kitchen to make sure nothing terrible would happen.  Her mother was very upset and cut off her own thumbs and put them on the griddle.  I can't handle all of this!  I am so filled with sorrow and grief.  All of these terrible things happened because Susku drowned and I didn't do anything to stop it.

And I still haven't made it home.

                                                                       Image info: Illustrated by Hilda Roberts (1919)  mythfolklore.blogspot.com




Author's note:
I read Persian Tales this week.  This story is about all of these terrible things happening, all because of Susku, the beetle, drowning.  It is an accumulation story, which I tried to show at the end, but it was a little difficult to do in diary form.   These tales were very different than anything else I have read so far in this class.  I liked the abrupt endings of these tales.  They leave you dumbfounded and sitting there confused; it was kind of odd to read and think it's going to keep going and then it just ends.  I also really liked how a lot of them started out with "Once upon a time there was a time when there was no one but God."  The story of Susku and Mushu was a very memorable story.  A man impales himself and then his wife cuts off her thumbs.  All because a beetle drowned.  In the original, the repetitious part that keeps getting more things added to it was longer than mine.  I thought shortening it might make it easier to read as well as make more sense with it being in diary form.  I think I kept to the original story, but just told it from the crow's point of view.
I used this image because it's pretty dramatic.  Before reading the story, I scrolled down to see how long it was and then there's a picture of man with a shovel handle going through him.  I of course had to read to find out why.

Bibliography: Persian Tales, translated by D.L.R. Lorimer and E.O. Lorimer and illustrated by Hilda Roberts (1919) 
Susku and Mushu

                                                                  (Image source: Illustrated by: Hilda Roberts (1919) mythfolklore.blogspot.com/)