Native American Stories: Brainstorming Styles

Topic: For my storybook I want to write about Native American stories. I have read many stories from the Creek nation, and loved them all. It will not be difficult for me to create a storybook about this topic. I will probably stay with just Creek stories and culture, mostly because Native American cultures and story themes very greatly from nation to nation.

Bibliography:

Book: The Hunters’ wives, Rabbit Steals Fire, and The Young Man Who Turned into a Snake from A New Fire

Author: Ernest Gouge

Year: 2004

Possible Story Styles

Present Day Creek Child: I think it would be a really cool spin to have a kid find a collection of stories from his past cultures. It would be a first person prospective and involve him (I would make the character a guy since I am a guy) discovering what info the stories hold. He would learn more about himself and his Nation. Probably involve the boy finding a new appreciation of his culture.

Camp Fire Setting: This would involve an elder passing on stories verbally to a group of people (yes a camp fire setting). He or she (haven’t decided on this gender yet) would be the storyteller for a clan and share the wisdom of the past with them.

Story Hopping: This style would be more geared for kids. Could have two or three siblings go through and relive a few stories. Kind of like how Dragon Tales does it, if that is ok to use their idea. I think this would be really fun to imagine and recreate some of the stories.

First Person Account: This style is always a fun one for me to do. I like trying to figure out what others are thinking. Telling a first person story through a character’s eyes allows me complete freedom to interpret the characters thoughts and feelings the way I see them. Considering the stories New Fire has, I can have a lot of fun with this style.

Image from Gulf Coast News

Storytelling Week 3: The Carpenter and His Son

There once lived a carpenter, who was not very skilled at his work. He could complete projects here and there, but the projects where either ugly or misshapen. The carpenter knew nothing else, so could only use what little skill he had in carpentry to provide for his family. He had a son who wanted to go along with him on his work, but the carpenter never took him

“He will only hinder what little capability I posses,” said the carpenter.

            One-day the boy’s mother had to leave for town, and she persuaded the carpenter to take his son with him today

“The boy needs to see what you go through for us,” said the mother, “He needs to learn how to do this later on anyways.

            The carpenter reluctantly agreed. He and the boy gathered the equipment for the day and headed out. The first project they had was to repair their neighbors’ table. The legs of the table were uneven, and their job was to level an uneven table. The carpenter was shorting through the bag of tools, when the boy walked up to the table and stretched the wooden legs like they were gum. The boy completed the job with perfection in only 2 minutes.

The carpenter, completely dumbfounded, thought, “How was that possible, wood can’t do that and the child did that good without any tools or help?”

            After the carpenter witnessed what the boy can do, he took him everywhere. Any projects the carpenter couldn’t complete or messed up on, the boy (using only hands) would go fix his errors.  The work quality of the carpenter spread throughout the country, and he was getting more projects than ever before. The kind himself even heard of the carpenter!

“I am in need of a new throne,” said the king, “I will request that this carpenter and his son make it for me.”

            The king summoned them to his throne room to show them the original throne. He wanted an exact recreation of his original one. The carpenter knew that this project would be difficult. The design of the throne was so intricate that it would be impossible to recreate. To top it all off, the king said that they would be put to death if they made any errors. The carpenter started to build the throne, and when he was finished, every detail was identical to the original. When he went to put it in its place, he realized the diminutions where off! The carpenter made the throne too narrow. The boy stepped up to the throne and told the carpenter to grab the other side. They began to pull and pull, finally the throne gave way and stretched out to fit the original size. Once again the boy saved his dad’s hide.

“You will make a fine carpenter son, and very fine carpenter,” said the carpenter.

(Image from Bringing It All Back Home)

Author’s Notes: This story is an adapted version from TheLost Books of the Bible by Rutherford H. Platt, Jr. (1926). I took the section “Jesus and Joseph” and created a more detailed story of the two reacting. I also tried to turn the focus to Joseph, instead of Jesus.

Reading Diary B - The Infancy Gospels

Two stories within the Infancy Gospels stuck out to me in the latter half: “Jesus and Joseph” and “Jesus and the Philosophers”.

Jesus and Joseph stuck out to me, because of the relationship it showed between him and Joseph.  There is nothing in the Bible that even hints at that relationship. It was just nice to see that Jesus (even though he is the Son of God) still loved, helped and respected Joseph. I really enjoyed the short glimpse of that.

            Jesus and the Philosophers was probably my favorite story in the unit. I loved reading about the knowledge Jesus had even as a child! The all-knowing characteristic really showed up for this story. I just loved hearing that Jesus knew every from the universe all the way to the human body. It helped remind me that he really did create all things. The story just “wowed” me. Mostly because the human body is what fascinates me, and reading the brief part about Jesus telling about the veins and such made get super excited. The story was so fun and interesting to read, even with it being pretty short.
                                             

( found from Freestock)

Reading Diary A - The Infancy Gospels

My favorite part of this unit is Matthew’s retailing of the three wise men. It sets them up perfectly as men of power and prestige. They met with Herod the king, and were his guest. Even men of such statute fell in worship of the baby Jesus; that background adds a great deal of foreknowledge as to whom Jesus truly is. I don’t know about anybody else, but I don’t think I would bow and worship a baby (unless it was a baby like Jesus). I also like the info Mathew gave about the angel of the Lord coming to them in a dream, how they should avoid Herod. They knew how important this child was, and took the risk to protect him.

It also shows their commitment to the Lord they serve. They followed a star to find the child, and brought great gifts to his family all to see the glory of God. They literally came and left. The wise men only wanted to see Jesus, even if it was only for a night. I would do they same for sure.

(This depiction of the Three Wise Men was done by Val Stokes)