Week 3: Storybooks

Topic Statement: My storybook will be based on the four Gospels in the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I'm wanting to blend the accounts of the life of Jesus into one cohesive story (as if the four men were telling the story together, but each has his own perspective to add). I will definitely want to include some of the miracles but I will have to choose ones that are recounted in all four books. One story that I know appears in all four accounts is the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 found in the Gospels of the New Testament.
Bibliography: "Jesus Feeds the 5,000." The Gospels. The Holy Bible (New International Version). Zondervan. 1973.

Storytelling Strategy 1: Interview setting - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are all being interviewed closely following the Resurrection of Christ. While it is clear they all have the same story, each has a little different way of telling it. For example, in one interview, the men could be explaining how Jesus was baptized. I think it would be really interesting for the men to take turns adding to the story, throwing in detail that maybe one of the others "forgot" or didn't think was that important. It would be a way of almost filling in any gaps that occur among the Gospels.

Storytelling Strategy 2: Diary Entries - this would allow me to give each disciple his own personality. I would have each man give a diary entry from the same day about the same event, but in different ways. For example: one could be overly dramatic, another could be strictly factual without much commentary, one could be highly introspective, and so on. Showing the diary entries along side one anther will really illustrate the differences in the writing styles of the gospels.

Storytelling Strategy 3: My side of the story - Each disciple tells of a specific event in story format with his own personality. There should be slight variations with each retelling of the event. I think with this strategy, I may be able to add a little humor to the storybook. For example, the disciples could be poking fun at one another's reaction to Jesus performing a certain miracle.

Storytelling Strategy 4: What my dad saw: I was playing with the idea of a third person storyteller perspective for this storybook idea and what I came up with was the idea of having the children of the four men relate what each of their fathers had told them of this mysterious Jesus. Each child would have a different story based on how he or she had be told the story (which relates to which gospel we are referring). I also really like the idea of a child's perspective of a story of miracles and great wonders.

Storybook Projects: Week 2

Topic: Mermaid Tails (Get it?)
Comments: My favorite movie growing up was The Little Mermaid, which we all know to be a cutesy Disney representation of mermaid folklore. I've always found it interesting, however, that it seems that most other mermaid mythology paints mermaids as dark, malicious creatures, so I'm really interested in finding out all of the different perceptions of mermaids in different cultures.
Possible Stories: I read a storybook about mermaid legends that used some really great stories about mermaids and I recognized some of them when I looked at the Humanity website. D.L. Ashliman also provides different cultures' variations on two different mermaid myths.
Sample Story: On the Humanity website I recognized a story I had seen retold in a storybook about a girl whose twin sister was turned into a mermaid because she went swimming in the ocean on Easter Sunday.
Bibliography Information:
Story Title: The Mermaid's Twin Sister
Book Title: The Mermaid's Twin Sister
Author: Joseph L.
Year: 1994

Topic: Diary of Helen: The Face Before It Launched 1000 Ships
Comments: We traditionally associate Helen of Troy with the incitement of the Trojan War, her face launching a Greek fleet of 1000 ships when she leaves her husband, Menelaus for Paris of Troy. However, before she was Helen of Troy, she was Helen of Sparta, and before that, well we don't talk very much about that, do we? I'm interested in learning about what Helen was like as a girl, and what she was doing before she catalyzed the fall of Troy
Possible Stories: I found a book about Helen by Andrew Lang that chronicles Helen's life from the moment she first met Paris on throughout the Trojan War. It would be interesting to view Trojan War from her perspective and also gain insight on the romance for which an empire was destroyed.
Sample Story:  Book II tells of Helen's flight with Paris at Aphrodite's command. We learn that Helen did not seem to want to leave Sparta but did so out of fear of angering the goddess.
Bibliography Information:
Story Title: "The Spell of Aphrodite"
Book Title: Helen of Troy
Author: Andrew Lang
Year: 2011

Topic: Vampires: Demonic Creatures of the Night or Misunderstood Nocturnes?
Comments: So judge me if you must, but I did indeed go through a bit of a vampire fascination in middle school in which I read whatever vampire fiction I could find (e.g. Cirque Du Freak, Taste of Night, Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, etc.) What I still find interesting about vampire mythology are the pieces of the myth that seem concrete (the feed on blood, have an aversion to sunlight, show decelerated aging, etc.) and those that seem variable (living within society vs separate communities, fangs vs no fangs, and the like). I also find vampire origin stories really cool.
Possible Stories: Montague Summers' The Vampire, His Kith and Kin from the Sacred Texts archive is like a vampire encyclopedia with information about the origin of vampires, the nature of vampirism, vampires in different cultures, and more. There is also a wealth of information about vampires on the vampire Wikipedia page.
Sample Story: I think it would be really interesting to come use the information from Summers' The Origins of the Vampire to create an origin story.
Bibliography Information:
Story Title: "The Origins of the Vampire"
Book Title: The Vampire, His Kith and Kin
Author: Montague Summers
Year: 1928

Topic: Miracles - What We Saw, an Interview with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
Comments: At church once, a guest speaker explained that each of the gospels gave a different type of account of the life of Jesus Christ - one a romance, one a biography, one an action movie, (try as I might I cannot remember what the last is) - and since then, I've really liked the idea of looking at Jesus' life in different lights.
Possible Stories: I'm familiar enough with the gospels that I could probably adapt stories directly from the bible, but I've also found some pretty amazing bible-based storybooks that I can use for inspiration.
Sample Story: I've always loved the account of Jesus feeding the 5,000 and I think it would be fun to make it into more of a story than an account.
Bibliography Information:
Story Title: Jesus Feeds the 5,000
Book Title: The Holy Bible, New International Version
Author: Published by Zondervan
Year: 1978