Topics Week 2

Possible Topic 1: Animal Storybooks

I have already had some exposure to animals when I did my reading over Aesop’s Fables. People mostly really like animals and the fables do a great job at teaching morals so this is something I might consider basing my Storybook off of. I’m not exactly sure if I would pick a single animal or a single culture. If I were to pick an animal, I would probably go with the lion.

Research: I looked at Jataka Elephant Tales and the storytelling setting was all bedtime stories which is a good way to tell stories since many kids learned about these fables during bedtime. I also looked at The Lion and Friends  and may want to write the story in a human point of view. That would put a twist on things and make it more personable. 

Possible Topic 2: Nursery Rhymes

I haven't been too exposed to the topic of nursery rhymes so I think it would be fun to explore them. I like the nursery rhymes over the fairy tales because they are shorter so I can use my imagination more instead of trying to deviate from a detailed story.

Research: I've read a couple of nursery rhymes and honestly I am not sure what the point of some of them are. They are so short and I can't always figure out the deeper meaning of the rhyme. I google searched nursery rhymes and found that a lot of them have a darker meaning to them. Some of those meanings are described here. So it might be interesting to take a very popular nursery rhyme like "Three Blind Mice" and make the story a bit more twisted.

Three Blind Mice Online Link

Possible Topic 3: Bible Stories and Religious Topics

I am pretty familiar with the popular Biblical stories but I want to look into stories that aren't as popular. That way I can learn more and I can create a story that is new and unpredictable. I think it would be interesting to look at many different characters and put them into one storybook. They wouldn't have to be iconic characters. I would focus on the Christian contexts. 

Research: While I was browsing different topics, I came across The Saint with the Lion. I may be able to correlate this with the animal storybooks or possibly make a Bible Stories story book that used animal figures instead of people. I also came across Saint Nicholas which would be interesting because a lot of people know about Santa Claus but they don't really know the story of Saint Nicholas.

Possible Topic 4: Native American Traditions

I took a class a couple semesters ago about Native American culture and history so it would be interesting to study this topic once again. Living in Oklahoma, I have learned just how important Native American history is. Their culture too includes many animals in there story telling to teach morals or explain their history or stories about their ancestors so I could tie this in with the animal storybooks as well. 

Research: I looked at some storybooks that were already made and came across Native American Legends  that listed many philosophies using animal characters. The stories included reasons why some animals came to be the way they are. It explained why they had certain characteristics that were unique to each animal. I want to be creative with this approach but I'm not exactly sure how I would do so.