Extra Reading Diary: West African Folktales

these were my thoughts while reading West African Folktales 

I really enjoyed reading How We Got the Name "Spider Tales"- that spider is a smart animal playing on the cockiness of the others to get what he wants. i really liked how it showed the characteristics of four different animals. the bees were over excited, the boa was two proud the tiger was to curious and the spider was smarter than them all.

so as i was responding to stories a few weeks ago i had read a rewrite version of Anansi and Nothing. I was excited to read this story again because the ending always cracks me up.

I thought that these stories would be similar to the south african stories but they were not. these stories were full of spiders. while the south african stories were full of jackals. I wonder why this difference is. it could just be the stories that were selected or it could be that people in south Africa did not see as many spiders. I know that native americans also use the spider as a trickster. I thinks that it is cool that two completely different people groups can both describe one animal in the same way

jumping spider from Wikimedia 

           

Reading Diary B: South African Folktales

These were my thoughts as i was reading South African Folktales.

Over all I found these stories to fun and entertaining. I really like the simplicity of these folktale types of stories. i think that they revival a lot about a culture. 

While reading The Dance for Water I could not help but think how similar this was to The Story of a Dam. I wounder why this is? 

I also really liked the story of The White Man and Snake. although it was one of the shorter stories that we have read I found it to be full of information. First off i thought it was interesting that it said white man,  as these stories are set in Africa i would not expect for a white man to be the main subject. I also liked the lesson that was tough. even though you are nice to some one does not mean that they will be nice to you. also that peoples nature does not change over knight. something that i found interesting about this story is that the jackal ended up helping instead of hurting like he does in most stories. 

man snake basket from Pinellas Park   on Wikimedia 

Another story that i liked was Lion Who Thought Himself Wiser Than His Mother. I think this story shows the importance of understanding someone nature before just trusting them and it also shows that you should listen to your parents     

Reading Diary A: South African Folktales

these were my thoughts while reading South African Folktales

The Lost Message- Silly ants should have just worked together and they would have been fine. I dont understand why it is so hard for some people to get along

The Monkey's Fiddle- I really liked this story it was fun and it also showed how powerful music can be.

The Tiger, The Ram, and The Jackal- the silly tiger was just scared of what he did not know.

The Lion, The Jackal, and The Man- I liked seeing this story from the lions point of view and how he thought that the mad pulled out a rib when it was really jus a knife.

The World's Reward- this story was very similar to the last one but this time it was from the mans point of view. I wounder if there will be more stories when they take one view and switch it to another.

Tiger and Jackal- This story makes me thing that they jackal is the African version of the trickster.

Tink-Tinkje- Im really sure what happened at the end of this story of what that has so do with the rest of it. 

The Lion and Jackal- the lion should know by now not to trust the loin.

Jackal Fools Lion Again- man these lions really need to stop trusting the jackals. 

The Hunt of Lion and Jackal- again the jackal tricks the lion. I wonder why this is such a popular theme in Africa 

Story of Lion and Little Jackal- okay I am kind of getting tired of this same story over and over again. The Lioness and the Ostrich- Why does the lion always lose in these stories?   

The Story of a Dam- just when I thought lion would win the jackal got him again 

The Jackal From Wikimedia