Narration: The wings of a butterfly

AUTHOR: A traditional South American fable

STORY: Once upon a time, there was a little girl called Chimiduye and she lived in a small house in the rain forest with her relatives and mother and father. Boys and men hunted and girls and the women cooked and worked in a farm nearby.

The other girls and she never dared to step too far into the forest because they knew quite well it was very easy to get eaten by a wild beast or a spirit. And one day, when she was making a little basket she looked up and saw a huge butterfly in front of her and she followed in deep deep into the woods. And soon it disappeared into the vines and she realized that she had gone too far into the forest. And she wandered aimlessly through the trees only getting deeper into the forest then before.

And then she heard a little tap-tap-tap in the woods. And she thought hopefully, somebody's working in the woods and they can bring me home. And she followed the tapping sound, but to her surprise it was only a woopecker. She said to herself, if only you were human you could lead me home. The woodpecker said, "Why do I need to be human to lead you home? I could lead you home the way I am!"

She said, "Really?" And then the woodpecker said, "Why not." and flew away.

And then she wandered into the woods a little bit more and saw a big hut. And there was a lady inside it making a hammock. The lady said, "Don't ask me for help! You eat so many of us and boil so many of us, so don't ask me for help!" and old lady went away. The old lady was actually really just a bird transformed and fluttered into a tree.

And then a fruit fell from a tree and she picked it up and ate it. And then another one fell from the tree. She looked up and it was a group of monkeys. Her fear soon grew when daylight spread to darkness. The monkeys came down from the tree and she hid to watch them. And then to her surprise, the monkeys turned into humans. And one of the boy monkeys said,"What are you doing here, Chimuye?" And she said,. "I got lost." Then a woman monkey said, "Poor thing, you can come with us to the festival of monkeys. The Lord Monkey invited us."

And then they went to a big hut with a bunch of other monkeys wearing masks and costumes and drinking beer. And the Lord Monkey said, "Why are you here uninvited?" And the man monkey said, "We found her and brought her with us."

And that nights, she couldn't sleep from the King Monkey snoring. It sounded like somebody talking, and she listed to the king monkey and he said, "I'm going to devour her, I'm going to devour her." And she said, "Grandfather!" and he woke up and she said "you said you were going to devour me." And he said don't be silly, monkeys don't devour people. And went back to sleep.

She saw the Lord Monkey, and he wasn't really a monkey at all. He was a big beast with black spots. He was a jaguar! She got out of bed and got a torch and ran right out to the big hut.

Daylight soon came and she started to cry. She heard a fluttering and she looked up and saw a butterfly, and the butterfly said, "Follow me. I will show you the way home." "Really?" And the butterfly said, "Sure, follow me."

And soon they were at the river and on the other side was her family and friends. And she said,"I crossed the river without even knowing it! But how can I get back?" And the butterfly said, "I'll turn you into a butterfly." And she hummed "Who do drinks dew, who do drinks dew, who do drinks dew." And soon she was fluttering across the river.

The moment she touched ground she turned into a human and she went home. The end.

REVIEW: This story is from South America. My review is Ii do not get it at all. When I think of it, i think it's a little too changey. A little confusing. That is my review. I would like to change into a butterfly so I could flutter around. I'd sleep without a blanket. I'd sleep on a wall, and the most funnest of all would be to walk on the ceiling. But now I'm not a butterfly so I can't walk on the wall at all.

Narration: Belling the cat

AUTHOR: Aesop

One day, there was a family of mice. And they had a meeting. How would they get away from their enemy the cat? One young mouse said, "I have a good idea. It's simple and I know it will be a very good one. All we have to do is tie a bell around the cat and then the bell will ring whenever the cat is coming." But then one old mouse said, "That's a very good idea, but who will bell the cat?"

REVIEW: This is my opinion, that it's easy to say "I'm going to do it", but it might be harder to do it.

Narration: Anansi and the moss-covered rock

TITLE: Anansi and the moss-covered rock
AUTHOR: Traditional African fable

Once upon a time there was a spider named Anansi who was a famous spider. And as he walked along the path he wished he had some food. He said to himself, "I wish I had some food. I wish I had some food. I wish I had some food." Anansi saw something in the middle of the path. Was it food? No, it was just a rock. When Anansi looked at it closer he saw it was a moss-covered rock. And Anansi said "What a strange rock!" and fell asleep. And he slept for a long long time and woke up and said "What a strange rock!" and fell asleep again. And again, and again, and again. And then he said, "What a.....hold it! This must be a magic rock!"

And then he went to Jaguar's house and said, "Let's take a walk because I want to show you a real cool thing." He took Jaguar out and showed him the rock. And the Jaguar said "What a strange rock!" and he fell right asleep. And then Anansi stole all his bananas.

Anansi played the same trick on Monkey, and Bullfrog, and Chipmunk and all the other forest animals. But little Bush Deer was hiding in the bushes and watching him. He followed Anansi to the rock and Anansi couldn't help playing the trick on Bush Deer.

He knocked on Bush Deer's door and said, "I want to show you something real cool." So Bush Deer followed him to the rock. And Bush Deer said, "What is that thing, Anansi?" Anansi said, "No, that's not what you're supposed to say!"

Bush Deer said, "What am I supposed to say?" "You know, that thing," said Anansi. And Bush Deer said, "Ok, if it makes you happy, Anansi. You know, that thing."

"No, not that! You're supposed to say What a you know you know."

"Okay, if you say so. What a you know you know."

"No!" And Anansi stomped his feet and said, "You're supposed to say What a strange rock!" and he fell right asleep. And all the animals got their food back. The end.

REVIEW: This story is spider-like. That is what I think of it. Spider-like means that it sounds just like a spider's telling it to you. I think it's a little too spider-like, and I don't like spiders so I didn't like it. I think Anansi was a little too greedy and if he takes everybody's food he'll get fat. It's also spider-funny-like. That's the end of my review. The end.

Nature Study: Daddy Longlegs

Daddy longlegs eat a lot of stuff. They eat tons of bugs, kind of just like frogs, bread and butter. And some of them have small bodies with long legs and others have big bodies with shorter legs and the small body ones are the males.

The shape of spider bodies are very different because spiders have two parts, and daddy longlegs have one part. Spiders have eight eyes and daddy longlegs have two eyes.

Daddy longlegs' legs can come out very easily. And if you look at one carefully, you'll see little spots of white on its legs. I don't know what it is but I think it's just a part of them.

I think Daddy longlegs are kind of cute and good for pets. If you have pets that don't bite and are animals and you can feed them human food, you can keep them as pets. Some of them have 13 legs, others have 12. This one has eight legs. And it's a boy. I'm not going to keep it as a pet because it will want to go back to its wife, if it has a wife, and babies.

Narration: How the Whale got his throat

TITLE: How the Whale got his throat
AUTHOR: Rudyard Kipling

NARRATION: The whale ate all the fish and the dish and the kish and the bish and the vish and the hish and there was no more fish left except for one tiny little fish called the Stute fish. And the whale said "I'M HUNGRY!" And then the little fishy said "Have you ever tasted man?" And the whale said, "NO!"

The whale asked "HOW DO THEY TASTE?" The little fish said they taste chubby and nubby. And the whale said, "FETCH ME SOME." The little fish said, "Go to 4 east west and 5 east 10th street." And the whale swam as fast as he could to 4 east west and 5 east 10th street. And he found there as the fish had said a man in the middle of the sea on a raft wearing a pair of blue pants with a pair of suspenders. And there he gobbled the man up in one gulp, he sucked up the sea.

In the whale's stomach the man danced and pranced and manced and tanced and wanced and danced until the whale go the hiccups. *hiccup [sound effect here]* The whale said,"STOP IT", but the man said, "No I will not until you take me home."

So the whale swam to the sailor's home. And then the man jumped out and went home. But before he did that he took his knife and cut his raft and made a grate and tied it with his suspenders and clipped it on to the whale's throat. So from then on, the whale did not eat anything but tiny fish. The end.

REVIEW: I thought this story was very silly because suspenders are not water-proof and they would fall apart when they touched water. The end of my review. I liked the fishy part of the story and the other parts I did not get at all.

Narration: The Enchanted Princess (part 1)

TITLE: The Enchanted Princess (from the collection, Stories From Bengal)
AUTHOR: Betsey Bang

NARRATION: There was a raja and he had seven ranis. They had no sons. And then a man gave them a root and told them to pound it well and eat it and they will have sons. So the five eldest ate so much that there was none left for the other ranis, Middle Rani and Little Rani. The other ranis laughed at them and said that if they had children it would be an owl and a monkey. They gave birth to baby boys and there were five boys and Middle Rani had an owl and Little Rani had a monkey. And then everybody cheered because they had sons. But no one asked about Middle Rani and Little Rani and they were put work in the garden as slaves. Little Rani had to get fuel for the palace and Middle Rani had to sweep the garden and feed the birds.

The princes grew up to be big and they ran around and around and around. They were not nice. They rode their pegasuses and beheaded people. But the owl and the monkey grew up in the garden. One day, the owl and the monkey got out of the garden and went to the gatekeeper. The gatekeeper asked "Who are you?" and they said, "I'm the monkey prince." "And I'm the owl prince."The gate keeper opened the gate and they went to the raja, and the monkey prince sat on his lap and the owl prince sat on his shoulder. They said "Father!" And the raja had tears in his eyes, he cried for joy.

One day, an enchanted princess came and the ranis wanted their sons to look for her kingdom, so they set off in peacock boats. The monkey and the owl princes said "We need to go too in our own peacock boats." So they went home, and the ranis said, "Our sons should go too." So they made little canoes and painted them a beautiful color.

REVIEW: So far I think that it is a rather long story. I think that it is a very unusual story because there is almost no way humans could give birth to a monkey and an owl. That means this story is not a true story. Those two girls could not have given birth to an owl and a monkey. And that's all I think about it so far.

Narration: The Huckabuck Family

TITLE: The Huckabuck Family and How They Raised Pop Corn in Nebraska and Quit and Came Back
AUTHOR: Carl Sandburg

NARRATION: Jonas Jonas Huckabuck and Mama Mama Huckabuck and Pony Pony Huckabuck lived in Nebraska. They were raising pop corn. Pony Pony Huckabuck had a secret. Her secret was a goldeny squash. She wanted to make pumpkin pie. She opened the squash and it was very pretty and there was a little spot of silver. She poked and poked and plumped and poked with her fingers and she found a little thing, a little slipper thing, a chinese silver slipper buckle. She showed the buckle to Mama Mama, who said, "It will change our luck. We don't know if it will be good luck or bad luck." And then she made squash pie.

That night there was a fire. And it popped popped and popped the pop corn and it burned all the pop corn and the pop corn went up and up and up and it looked like snow. Big white snow. And then the Huckabuck family quit and went away. They went to Iowa and the daddy's job, Jonas Jonas Huckabuck had a job in a watch shop where he watched the watches at the watch shop. They were waiting for a sign so that they could go back to Nebraska.

Pony Pony Huckabuck wanted to makes some squash pie, so she went to the store and she got a squash. Can you guess it? You guessed it. There was a chinese buckle in the squash. She said "A sign! A sign!" and she took it to her mama and they moved back to Nebraska where they lived happily ever after. They did not plant pop corn ever again. The end.

REVIEW: I did not ever get this story one bit. The title is so long I do not get was the title means. And I have no idea why a farmer would raise pop corn because it's not obliged to be raised on a farm. A farm is where you raise all kinds of vegetables and fruit, no pop corn. I thought the story was nuts. I did like the chinese buckle, though. I wish I had a nice chinese buckle, even though I have a nice purple flower in my hair.

Narration: Once a mouse

TITLE: Once a mouse
AUTHOR: Marcia Brown

NARRATION: There was once a mouse who got chased by a hawk and then a man picked up and took him home. The man was a hermit. The hermit turned the mouse into a cat because the cat was trying to eat the mouse. And then a dog tried to eat the mouse-cat so then the hermit turned the cat into a dog. And then the dog got chased by a tiger, then the dog got turned into a royal tiger and roamed about the forest. He thought he was so pretty and he bragged and bragged and bragged. The hermit said you are a too braggy, I am going to turn you back into a mouse. The tiger thought "I'm going to eat him." But the hermit read his mind and said "Go back into the forest and be a mouse again." He turned him back into a mouse and the mouse never came back. The end.

REVIEW: I did not like this story because I think the mouse never came back because somebody ate up the mouse. I learned a hermit sits far away from other people and thinks, thinks, thinks, thinks.

Narration: The Last Quest of Gilgamesh

[This is a narration exercise, based on a book we just read. L is dictating back what she remembers of the story.]

TITLE: The Last Quest of Gilgamesh
AUTHOR: Ludmila Zeman

STORY: Gilgamesh's friend died. He went on a last adventure. He met a lion who almost fell off a cliff. He took the lion on his adventure with him. Shamhat told them she would tell them where to go and then they went through a long long tunnel. And then they went into a beautiful garden, it was the Sun God's garden. He told them to rest there but Gilgamesh wanted to go on. Then the lion cub got so tired he collapsed on the desert floor. Then Gilgamesh, he picked him up on to his head and they went to a very nice house that was owned by a very nice lady who said they could not cross the sea unless they had a boat. And they took a boat and they sailed to Noah. The sea was very deadly and full of bones, dead animal bones. He cut down 120 trees and he used them as oars. He needed them because the sea would devour whatever would go in there. Finally he reached Noah's ark (I don't remember his real name, there are lots of names for him so I call him Noah because that's the name I know him more) and then he tried to pass the test. The test was to stay awake six days and seven nights while Noah read his story. And then when Noah was finished, he was asleep. So he lost the test and he had to go to the bottom of the sea and get the plant. The plant, whenever you take a bite of it, it would never let you grow old. So he got the plant and took a nap on the island. But then Ishtar (she was the goddess of love) ate up the plant. She was a serpent goddess. She was mad at Gilgamesh because he refused her marriage to him. She ate up the plant. Enkidu's ba [the spirit form of the soul that looks like a bird--K] flew them to Uruk, where Gilgamesh saw the wall that he had builded and he was happy forever. The end.

REVIEW: I have read five versions of this book and I really like it. But I don't like that Enkidu died because he was a really nice friend to Gilgamesh.

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P.S. -- It's the end of the day but I still love my family. And my blog.