Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Reading Notes: Andersen Fairy Tales Unit Part A

Andersen Fairy Tales, by Hans Christian Andersen. Link to reading here.

I knew I wanted to choose this collection of stories because my grandparents once traveled to Europe to Hans Christian Andersen's birthplace and brought back a beautiful set of books filled with his fairy tales. I used to read these books all the time and I was so glad to read them again.

I love the story of the Princess and the Pea. It's a classic story that a lot could be done with. For instance, why was the princess trapped out in the rain? The prince had apparently just traveled across the entire country looking for a princess. Why had he missed out on this specific princess? I think an interesting story here could be the princess' back story. What made her trek across the country through a large storm to seek out this prince? Had she heard about his quest to find a princess? What made her want to be that princess? Also, why in the world did the queen, once this princess had found them, decide to put a pea in her bed? Why the pea? I think it would also be cool to make up a significance to the pea, as opposed to a stone or pebble. Also, how grueling was that evening with something jabbing into your body the entire time? I think this will be the story on which I will write my Storytelling post. There isn't a lot of meat to the story itself, which lends itself nicely to being expanded upon in a big way.

I also appreciate the class "Emperor's New Suit" story. A leader is so conceited and at the same time insecure about his position that he lies about wearing a "suit" that literally does not exist. He would rather walk around his town naked than admit to possibility that he's not well "suit"ed (excuse the pun) to his office.

(Hans Christian Andersen, web source: Wikimedia)

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