Portfolio Guide

Jack and Jill
A story about a girl named Jill who loves a boy named Jack.


The Spoiled Ox
A story about a farmer who knows a thing or two about respect and care.


The Princess and the Bird
A story about a Princess who finds true love in an unusual way.


The Man in the Moon
A story about a girl who think she loves the moon.


Life of a Carpenter
A story about a man who follows his instinct.

Storytelling Week 10: The Man in the Moon

The Man in the Moon

Kelly was your typical eight-year-old girl. She was energetic, happy, and had a wild imagination. Every night after her parents tucked her into bed, Kelly would crawl out of bed and go over to her window. She would stare up at the big bright moon every night. Her imagination would run wild about who lived on the moon, what the moon was made of, and where the moon went during the day.

One night, Kelly’s mom came in to check on her and saw her over by the window. She went over, joined her, and asked what she was doing. Kelly explained that she had heard at school that there was a man in the moon, so she was waiting to see him. Kelly’s mom giggled and smiled at her, and then looked up to the moon and started to point out the face of the man on moon. Kelly was thrilled. She really thought the moon had a face and was a person.

Kelly’s mom tucked her back into bed and Kelly dozed off to sleep. It felt like only minutes later that Kelly heard a voice calling her name. She sat up and saw the moon right outside her window. She saw every detail of his face too.

“Come here,” he said.

Without thinking, Kelly got out of bed and went over to the window.

“Hello, Kelly, I am the man in the moon. I have noticed you watching me for many nights. I am flattered, “ said the moon.

Kelly was so excited she could not even speak. She just stood there smiling ear to ear.

“Kelly, please come join me up in the sky. I will be the man in the moon and you can be a beautiful star right by my side,” said the moon.

“I can be a beautiful star?” Kelly exclaimed. “I have watched you for as long as I can remember, and I would love to be a big bright star up in the sky with you!”

The moon smiled at Kelly and explained to her that all she had to do was touch the moon and they would travel up into the sky together to live side-by-side forever. Kelly wasted no time. She opened the window, reached out, and touched the moon. Before she knew it she was flying through the air headed to the sky. As she was flying, she was slowly transforming into a star.

As soon as she was in place next to the moon as a star, Kelly heard another voice.

“Kelly, Kelly honey, it's time to wake up,” said the voice.

Just as quick as her dreams had come true of being with the man in the moon, she realized it was just that: a dream. Kelly’s mom was standing over her, waking her up for school. Even though she was disappointed it was only a dream, she felt a new connection to the moon. Every night she continues to look out her window before going to bed to tell the man in the moon good, hoping that she will see him again in her dreams. 

(Photo taken from WikiMedia Commons)

Author’s Note:
This story is based on the story The Maiden Who Loved a Star. The original story is about a girl who falls in love with a sky dweller, which turns out to be a star. The girl wants to die so she can go up to the sky and be near the star she loves. However, when she goes to seek help to accomplish this, instead she is turned into a bush. The story goes on to tell how the branches reach high up into the sky near the star. The star then fell upon the bush and created what we know as Purple Sage. Purple Sage has purple flowers that look almost dusted with white. The white is representative of the star.

After reading through the story a few times, the sky dweller reminded me more and more of a man in the moon. As a child, I thought the moon had a “face” and that the face belonged to a person of some sort, hence “the man in the moon.” I wanted to elaborate on that in this story and myth I had believed as a child.

The original story simply sparked a reminder of my childhood imagination. That is really the only connection the two stories had to begin with. This published story is much different from the first draft I wrote up. My first draft did not really connect like I wanted it to, so I just kept rewriting. As I kept writing and kept tweaking things, I decided to follow along with the original story line a little more and have the main character “love” the moon, much like the Indian girl loved the star. I also wanted to keep a more modern feel to the story. I know that I connect better with modern stories so I wanted my readers to do the same.



Bibliography
The Maiden Who Loved a Star
Tejas Legends Unit
When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends
Florence Stratton and Berniece Burrough, 1936

Storytelling Week 9: The Princess and the Bird

The Princess and the Bird

In a kingdom far away, a beautiful princess lived happily in her castle with her mother, her father, and her pet bird, Stanley. One sunny afternoon the princess decided to open the windows in her room to let the sunshine. She did not realize that her birdcage had come open and Stanley flew out of the window.

The princess ran downstairs to her mother and told her what had happened. Being the queen, her mother told her daughter not to worry and that she would get Stanley back. The princess began to cry because she did not know how her mom could get Stanley back. Her mother informed her that true love would bring Stanley back home.

Knowing that the princess needed to find a husband, the queen decided to use this situation to hold a competition to find Stanley and marry off her daughter. The queen sent out for all of the single men in the kingdom to arrive at the castle the next day if they wanted to marry the princess.

Men showed up from near and far, ready to marry the beautiful princess. The queen informed the men that whoever could find Stanley and bring him back to the castle would have the privilege of marrying her daughter.

Almost immediately, the men went searching for the bird. Some of the men teamed up while others ventured out on their own. The princess watched from her window as the men exited the castle gates.

Days went by and no one had come back to the castle with Stanley. A few men showed up with similar birds and even different animals, but the princess would not accept anything but Stanley.

The princess was beginning to lose hope when all of a sudden there was a knock on the door. The king and queen raced to door and when they opened it they were completely shocked. There was Stanley in the arms of a man who did not appear worthy to marry their daughter.

The queen imagined a handsome and wealthy man with large muscles and a perfect smile would bring Stanley home. To her surprise, the man was covered in dirt, was not very strong, and had a bit of bend in his smile.

The princess came to the door to see what was happening and that is when she saw Stanley. Her tears stopped rolling down her face and she smiled bigger than she ever had before. She thanked the man repeatedly and then invited him in.

The queen looked at her daughter and then back at the man. Then she pulled the princess aside and told her that she did not have to marry this man. That she was the princess of the kingdom, and that she could go back on her word if she felt that she needed to do so. The princess laughed while holding Stanley tight and told her mother that she believed with her heart the true love would bring Stanley back home, and that is what happened. Her mother seemed slightly shocked but nodded her head and let the princess invite the man inside.

From that day forward, the princess and the man took care of Stanley together and lived happily ever after.

(Photo taken from WikiMedia Commons)

Author's Note:
The story that gave me the inspiration for The Princess and the Bird was How They Brought Back the Tobacco in the Cherokee Myths unit. In the original story, there was a woman who needed tobacco to survive. Her tobacco was stolen from her, and anyone who tried to get it back was killed. Eventually, a tiny hummingbird was able to sneak in and get the tobacco for the woman. I felt thought that the story line was a little bit extreme so I wanted to lighten it up by making the main character miss something terribly, but not need to survive. The princess in my story missed her bird but was not going to die without it. I also did not want any of the characters in my story to die. I felt like having the contest in order to marry the princess fit well into the whole fairytale kingdom theme. Many men would show up to win the princess, and all would fail except one. I chose to put the fairytale love story spin on it so it would fit well in my portfolio too. I did not want the winner to be a typical Prince Charming either. I felt the it needed to be a more grounded man who wanted to help the princess more than he wanted to marry the princess.

Bibliography:

How They Brought Back the Tobacco 

Cherokee Myths unit

Myths of the Cherokee

James Mooney, 1900

Storytelling Week 5: The Spoiled Ox

(Photo taken from WikiMedia Commons)

Long ago, Farmer John owned the strongest ox in all of the land. He was very proud of his ox too. Farmer John took better care of his ox than he did of himself. His ox would get a bath every morning, and it was not just any bath. Farmer John built the ox his very own bathhouse. He took the ox in there every morning at 7:00 a.m. and cleaned him until his coat would shine. After his morning cleaning, Farmer John would then feed his ox the freshest of all feeds. He made sure it was the healthiest, cleanest, and best feed there ever was. He cared so much about his ox that he wanted to make sure that he fed him only the greatest.

Right after breakfast, Farmer John took his ox on a two-mile walk. He did not want to overwork him, but he wanted to make sure his ox was loose and ready for the next part of his day. Immediately after returning from their walk, Farmer John would attach his to various wagons of various weights. The ox would then pull the wagons across the pasture and then return to the farmer. As Farmer John would move the ox from wagon to wagon, the weight load would increase. After completing his pull on the fifth wagon, Farmer John would take his ox back into the bathhouse and give him a post workout bath. Once again, Farmer John would scrub and clean his ox until his coat was shining and cleaner than before.

By this time, it was time for the ox to eat lunch. Farmer John would put out more of the feed for his ox. Farmer John focused so much on his ox that many times he would forget to take care of himself. The ox would get most of the rest of the day to relax inside the barn but at 6:00 p.m. Farmer John would go attach his ox to the wagons once again. He would go through his same rounds of wagons, and then return to the barn for dinner. After the ox was fed his third meal of the night, Farmer John would place fresh hay in the ox’s stable and call it a night.

Farmer John followed this schedule every single day to make sure he always had the happiest and strongest ox of all. Farmer John knew that giving his ox such special treatment and taking great care of him would pay off for him someday, so Farmer John vowed to never veer away from his way of life with his ox.

One day Farmer John entered his ox into a contest. His bull would have to pull five wagon's worth of weight over fifty yards. No one believed that Farmer John’s ox would succeed. Everyone having a lack of confidence in his bull made Farmer John very angry. So after he hooked up his bull to the wagon, he slapped him on the butt and irritably yelled at him to start pulling. The ox did not respond to this treatment.

The farmer took a step back and began to ponder why his ox was not performing as usual. After a few moments of thought, the farmer realized he was treating his ox very poorly. Farmer John walked up to the front of the ox, apologized, and rubbed his nose gently. He then proceeded to walk away and right then the ox started to pull the wagon.

The farmer ran to finish line to congratulate his beloved animal. Farmer John finally realized true respect and compassion will always win over anger and force.


Bibliography:
The Ox Who Won the Forfeit
Jataka Tales
Ellen C. Babbitt, 1912


Author’s Note:
This story is based on The Ox Who Won the Forfeit from the Jataka Tales. In the original story, the farmer enters his ox into a contest, and when it is time to perform, the ox fails because the farmer treats him poorly. The farmer then enters him in the contest again. This time the farmer treats the ox with respect and the ox won the contest.

The original story never explains how the ox was treated to begin with, so that is where my wheels started turning. I wanted to give a story about the day in the life of this incredibly spoiled ox. I felt like there needed to be a reason in which the bull reacted to one treatment but not the other. I also wanted to tie in some kind of loving and kind meaning to it in order to add it to my portfolio. It is not necessarily a romantic love story, but it does have a loving vibe to it. Humans love their pets all the time, and of course this farmer thought of his ox as a pet.

I also took a little bit of the original story, like the ox being entered into a contest, and added it to the end. To save time and word count, I edited the original story line a bit. In the original story, the farmer comes across as a greedy and boastful man. In my story I wanted to show that the farmer had true love and compassion for his ox, and that his treatment of ox at the contest was simply a mistake. 

Storytelling for Week 2: Life of a Carpenter

Noah lived a simple life and worked hard every single day to provide for his family. He was up before the sun and never laid his head on his pillow until the sun had set again. As a carpenter, Noah would use his free time at work to build and create random items from his company's extra wood.

One day a lumberyard delivered a thousand loads of the wrong kind of wood to Noah’s company. Rather than sending it back, Noah’s boss let him have it and told him to do with it as he pleased. After looking at his collection of miniature wooden ships he had built and then back at the amount of wood that was delivered he came up with the grand idea of building a real wooden ship.

He went home that evening and told his family what had happened at work and told them of his idea to build a ship. They all laughed and told him he was crazy. They all had doubts that he could actually construct something so large. This angered Noah, so he stormed off to bed.
The next day at work Noah started his construction of the ship. Piece-by-piece and board-by-board he worked tirelessly on this ship. After almost six months working day in and day out on this project that no one believed in, Noah stood before a beautiful wooden ship. The entire community was shocked by the size of the ship. No one knew what he would ever do with such a thing.

The night Noah completed the ship he fell asleep with a slight smirk on his face. He was proud that he had proved everyone wrong. However, that very night Noah had the worst night's sleep he had ever experienced. He had terrible nightmares of a terrible rainfall that covered the entire Earth.

Noah woke up the next morning and noticed that it was raining. At that point he knew that the dream was more than just a dream; it was a sign! He gathered his family, friends, and citizens of his community, and then told them of his dream. He encouraged everyone to get on the boat immediately. Laughter broke out among the crowd. Everyone called him crazy and went home. As the day continued, the rainfall began to come down harder and harder. It was at that point that Noah’s family finally took him seriously and decided to get on the ship.

Shortly after they were settled on the ship, they looked outside to see animals everywhere. Noah and his wife went to the main loading dock and opened it up. The animals automatically started loading themselves onto the ship by twos. Noah and his wife were amazed and shocked. As soon as all of the animals were boarded, they shut the door.

The rain was beginning to cause minor flooding throughout the village in which Noah and his family lived. As it got worse and worse people started to gather at the main loading deck, yelling at Noah to let them in. Noah knew there was no more room now that the animals had boarded, so he refused to let them on. It was almost in that same instance that the entire village heard a grumbling voice come from the sky.

“I tried to warn you. You had your chance to board with Noah earlier. You gave up that chance, so I allowed the animals of this world to take your place. You will now suffer the consequences.”

Everyone was panicked and ran back to their homes. Noah looked up to the sky and knew exactly what had happened. God had chosen him. God took his master woodworking skills and used them to save him and his family, as well as the animals of his world.

Shortly after, the ship lifted off the solid ground. From the upper deck, Noah and his family watched the village become completely submerged. Noah wrapped his arms around his wife and children and drifted away into the endless water, never to see their old village again.

(Picture of Rainfall in the distance, from Wikimedia Commons)

Author's Note:
This story is based off the readings from Noah and the Ark. I kept the main character as Noah, but I wanted the scene to seem a little more modern day. I chose to write this story in a sense of everything happens for a reason. I truly believe that everything does happen for a reason, so I wanted to portray that in my writing. In its original Biblical setting, God gives the commands to Noah, and then Noah follows through. But I wanted to make it seem as if Noah simply had a dream about what was going to happen and felt the need to follow through on those gut instincts. Of course at the end I brought back the whole idea of God talking directly to him, but only to bring back in a little bit of the original story. I included the background of why Noah even had all that wood and portrayed Noah as a carpenter in order to follow along with my theme and moral of the story. Having Noah as a character that was already building a boat just for the heck of it because he wanted to shows that his random action was actually meant to be helpful to him down the road; hence, everything happens for a reason.

Bibliography: 

The King James Bible (1611), Genesis

The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg (1909)

Week 1 Storytelling: Jack and Jill

“Jack and Jill went up the hill

To fetch a pail of water;

Jack fell down and broke his crown,

And Jill came tumbling after.”

The Nursery Rhyme Book, edited by Andrew Lang and illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke (1897). Web source: Project Gutenberg.

Jack and Jill had been neighbors since they were born. Their parents were the best of friends, yet the two had never really been that close.

Jack was seventeen. He was known as a very hard-working young man. He was always focused on his work and deeds for others. He was most famous for being the town handyman. If anything broke, he was there to fix it. He was never afraid to get his hands dirty. In fact, some would say he actually enjoyed it. Jack was very outgoing and always up for a challenge. It seemed he was a lady’s man too. Jack was the typical hard-working and handsome man every woman dreams of.

With Jack focusing so much on his work, he never had time to pay attention to the lovely young lady next door, Jill.

Jill was also seventeen. She was very shy and not very outgoing. She seemed to lack self-confidence, which was the main factor in keeping her from Jack. Jill had been watching Jack from afar for many years. In fact, they had every class together since they were four years old. Even though her parents were best friends with Jack’s parents, she just never found the guts to strike up a conversation with him. She know how devoted he was to his work and how much he enjoyed helping others when he was needed, so the last thing she wanted was to distract him or interrupt his lifestyle.

One day, an older woman in the town told Jack to climb the tallest hill in the town to fetch a bucket of the cleanest and purest water for her. Jill saw this as her chance to talk to Jack. She thought she could offer him a helping hand.

“Jack, I heard you have to go all the way to the top of the tallest hill,” said Jill, with a shaky voice.

“Yes, I do. It will not be hard to get up the hill, but traveling back down with the full bucket of water will be difficult,” said Jack.

“Well, I bet it would be easier if you had an extra set of hands to help you carry that full bucket all the way back down,” said Jill.

“I think you are right. Would you like to help me?” asked Jack.

“I would love to! I mean, I think I could help you, yeah, I can try,” said Jill.

The next day, Jack and Jill ventured up the hill to fetch a pail of water. They made it to the top with no problems at all. After they filled the pail and started to head down the hill, Jack lost his balance and went tumbling down. His fall startled Jill, which caused her to go tumbling down the hill as well.

After dusting themselves off at the bottom of the hill, they realized they had lost their pail full of water. As disappointed as they were for losing the water, they laughed it off and continued their day together. From that day forward, Jack and Jill worked together to help the town they grew up in and lived happily ever after.

The End.

Jack and Jill by Sue Clark.Wikimedia Commons

Author's Note:

This nursery rhyme is about two people, Jack and Jill, who go up a hill to get some water and then fall down the hill. Like most nursery rhymes, it is very self-explanatory. However, while being self-explanatory overall, it is also very vague when it comes to the characters in the story.

I enjoyed writing for this one because it has very little detail so I was able to use a lot of imagination. I have always been a fan of love stories and such, so my imagination of course wanted to write something cute and love-related. Most people assume Jack and Jill are brother and sister, or something along those lines. I thought shaking it up and making them potential lovers would be more interesting. It is rare in nursery rhymes and riddles that we get any background on the characters, so being able to make that part up and use my imagination to create these characters from scratch is very fun.

After doing a little bit of outside research on this nursery rhyme, I found out that “Jack and Jill” could possibly have a romantic connotation to it already! A proverb says “A good Jack makes a good Jill.” Reading this made me happy, but at the same time, I felt like it took away from my creativity.