Penelope

This is going to sound really random but I went to see a movie this weekend. Before I went I had been watching t.v. and this preview for a movie named Penelope came out. From what the movie trailer showed it looked as though the main character named Penelope is born with a piggy nose (it looks as though she has a snout).

So the reason why I brought this up is because I wanted to know if Penelope is a fairy tale that they remade into a movie. I assumed it was a fairy tale because she was born with something that could be seen as a curse (her nose) and the fact that she falls in love with a young man and her nose is fixed (or so thats what you infer from watching the preview).

If you could please answer my question about Penelope: is it a fairy tale or not?

Little Red needs a Prince too

Hello Mother Goose,
I know this may sound like another excuse,
But I don't want to be the only lady,
With no prince; it drive me crazy

My name is Little Red,
I took my grandmother some bread,
And though I am strong,
I feel like I don't belong

I have yet to find true love,
I feel like I kiss many doves,
But none turnout to be mine,
And that is just fine

Though I know you're not my fairy Godmother,
I think of you like a long lost brother,
Who can protect me and care for me,
As if I was one of your own.

My friend Cinderella says that you helped her find her man,
So what do you say, can we work out a plan?
To search for my prince,
And finally end my endless search

So I end this poem with a cry for help,
Please don't make me find you and yelp,
I'm thanking you in advance,
What do you say...Are you goning to give me a chance?

Charlotte's Web

I have recently started to read Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. This turned out to be a little ironic because we started to watch this movie with this kids today at work (I work at the Boys and Girls Club). Since I haven't yet finished the book I decided to watch the movie and then later compare the book and the movie as I did with Ella Enchanted. I LOVED the movie. I felt that even though Charlotte is a spider she is the friend that everybody wants. She befriends Wilbur when he first arrives at Ferns' uncles place and welcomes him as a member of the animal community.

Charlotte helps Wilbur by using her web as a tool. She helps Wilbur and makes sure that he is not eaten as Christmas dinner. Throughout the entire movie I felt that there would be a happy ending and was really surprised when Charlotte died at the end. Though I have not finished the book, I will continue reading it so that I can compare if the movie did the book justice.

Where the Wild Things Are

I started reading some of the books that we have to read later on throughout class. When I got to Where the Wild Things Are it took me back to when I was a child. I love how the story goes about. Max, a young boy, gets in trouble for being bad, which we have all been, and is sent to his room without dinner. While in his room he lets his imagination go "wild" and starts day-dreaming. He dreams of his room turning into a jungle in which he goes on an adventure. He finds all these animals that you would typically find in the wild and has encounters with them.

Somehow he manages to tame them and become the ruler of the jungle. Max then gathers food to feed the animals. Though he sits back joyfully seeing how happy he has made the animals, he begins to smell all kinds of foods which make him miss home. He manages to make his way out of the jungle and back to his room only to find that he has dinner waiting for him, which is still warm.

I loved the pictures and the book as a whole. The way that they make home seem like no matter what it will always be there. And no matter how bad you behave your parents will still love you; and feed you dinner. Max is very reminicent of the inner child that we all still posses. I sometimes still sit at home and before I go to bed check inside my closet just to make sure that there are no monsters inside. And every once in a while I get the urge to let my inner Max out and act mischiveous!

Ever After

This Friday when we started to watch Ever After, I was left with a couple of questions that
I hope somebody can answer for me.

1. What exactly a movie a play off of; the story Ella Enchanted or the fairy tale Cinderella?
If it is a play of Cinderella I keep wondering what the reason is for the stepmother staying as the sole propetior of everything. I mean isn't Daniella the one that is entitled to all her fathers assets and wealth because she is his daughter? And if that is the case wouldn't she have the authority to get rid of her stepmother if that is what she wanted? Or maybe she is too young to take ownership of all the things, then wouldn't it seem possible to think that maybe some of the help that they have would have tried to leave because they dislike the stepmother?

2. How is it that Daniella was not instantly recognized by Henry when she gave him the name of her mother? Wouldn't he have been able to put two and two together and realized that the name belonged to her mother or wouldn't her stepmother have found out that it was Daniella because after all, she must have recognized the name.

Though some of the questions I just asked don't make much sense they are just an example of things that were left unanswered in my head.

Fairy Tales in Elementary School!

As a part of my TEFB 273 class I am required to go to an elementary school in Bryan to sit in in a class of 1st graders. Today the children were reading a clean, childrens version of Little Red Riding Hood. I thought it was ironic that we had just finished reading it and the children were reading it as well. I choose one of the kids to read to me and in the process he looked over to me and said "Do you think this is the only Little Red Riding Hood story that has ever been written?" I quickly looked over and responded "NO." I told him that I would go over to my car and get my book and show him a different version of the Little Red tale.

I read him the different versions of Little Red such as the strong willed, independent girl from the Chiang Mi version named "Goldflower and the Bear." He really seemed to like it and what I think he liked best is that there were very many different elements such as the 3 bears and he noticed that it was a little reminicent of Goldie Locks and the Three Bears.

I finished off our reading session by reading the typical Brothers Grimm "Little Red Cap" version. He noticed that this one seemed closest to the Red story that he was reading. As I read, he would tell me "I bet you I can tell you what's going to happen next." I thought it was very funny that he did that because this story is predictable and it is the version that we all know.

Reading to him just showed me that classic fairytale stories such as Little Red are so universally used that even children as you as 6 are reading them in the classroom.

Ella Enchanted vs. Ella Enchanted (the movie)

Since I started reading Ella Enchanted, I remembered that the movie was going on to be t.v. this weekend so I made it a point to watch it. I didn't see it because I want to finish the book before I even start to watch the movie, so I recorded it on TiVo.

Personally I feel that if I watch the movie right now it would ruin the element of surprise that is the ending of the book. I'm not completely done with the book (I'm a slow reader) but, I have already pictured how some of the characters and how some of the settings in the movie are probably going to be. I feel as though the book is supposed to be something of humor and satire and that is why I figure that the movie will be somewhat of a comedy. As soon as I am done reading the book and watching the movie I plan to comeback and edit this blog with a short comparision of the two.

The Sisters Grimm

These past three days I've been at home sick with the flu. Today I finally managed to make my way out of bed long enough to watch a small segment on "The Today Show" about Al Rokers book club. The books he has his book club reading ironicly turned out to be a majority of childrens books so I tuned in to watch exactly what they were talking about. The book for this week was a book by the name of "The Sisters Grimm" by Michael Buckely.

From what the author told the audience, the book is about two sisters who find that they are distant relatives of the Brothers Grimm. (How cool would that be!) I just found that this would be a pretty fun book to read which is part of the reason why I went out and looked for it online. To my surprise there turned out to be five books out already and this book (the Sisters Grimm) will be the sixth one, which won't be out till later this year

Also I wanted to add, maybe later in semester to come you can add this book series to the required reading list of your students.