Storybook Favorites

When browsing through the Storybook Archive, I was drawn to the links that seemed familiar to me, or that peeked my interest right from the get-go. As someone that is very well-read in Greek Mythology, fairy tales and the like, I found these Storybooks to be the most interesting to me and my interests.

1. Piracy: Not Just For Men

While I have read about pirates and their plunders in the past, even avidly watched Black Sails for a time, there is not much to delve into when you want to read about female pirates. I knew about only one of the pirates that is mentioned in this story - Anne Bonny. In the introduction, the reader is provided a more in-depth explanation of the title that drew you to the story in the first place. Since I am always down for learning more about women in literature, the fact that the title references this is what drew me in. The introduction tells the readers that the author is a separate person than the narrator, who is a modern day writer for a news outlet known as the "Daily Sun." It explains each female pirate she researched and gives you an outline of who they were, which gives the reader background information on where they fit into the new story that the author has created.  The layout is simple: there is a photo that catches your attention at the top of the page, where a female pirate is fighting against a male, and then the rest of the post is underneath. The picture helps to get the reader to understand what is going to be portrayed throughout the rest of the page, which is a good tactic so that they are partially aware of what is to come. The navigation is separated and each page is named after the female pirate that comes into the story, which is good because you will understand where they fit into the tale based on the background information the readers were given in the Introduction. There is a picture of each female pirate on each page, which gives the reader a picture of what they looked like in order to help their imagine the characters properly. The pictures help the author in a way that they don't have to describe each pirate in detail for the audience. The story itself is definitely a good way to step away from the original tales and create a new angle to how these female pirates are portrayed.

2. Princes in Fairy Tales

While I have read many fantasy tales that have a male as the protagonist in the story, the author of this story book is right in that the more popular stories oftentimes have a black and white love interest for the princess, a expressionless character that is left for the readers to be curious about after the story is over. Who are they? What are they like? Sure, they're the love interest, but what else? The introduction tells its readers that they will be learning about princes with their own stories, and is in the point of view of a prince with his own story himself. The post, much like the rest of the Storybook, is written in the form of a letter, which is a great story telling tool as if provides the readers the understanding that the information they are learning is directly from the source - or that is what you are to believe. The pages themselves are made to look like actual letters, with words written on a piece of parchment. Each story has its own voice, as it comes from each different character, and that is something I would like to do in my own work. It gives the characters more depth. With each page, you also get an image of something important to the prince's tale, which helps the reader understand the character at a deeper level. The author's notes on each page provide the reader a grasp on where the knowledge, the story and the characters come from.

3. Stories From Australia

One of my best friends is from Melbourne, Australia, and I am constantly telling him that I never learned anything besides the name of his country when I was in school. The fact that this author took the time to look into folk tales from Australia is a fun and cool concept that drew me in right away. The introduction provides the readers with an understanding of who each of the characters in the stories are - animals that have the capability to tell the tales themselves. The author provides a setting for the story, and a background of why the story is going to be told the way that it is. Each page, each different story, is named based on the original story that the author is basing them off of, instead of like the other Storybooks I looked at - which name each different page depending on each character. I like this because it gives me an understanding of the story itself, rather than just providing me who is going to be the narrator of the tale. The pictures that the author uses are integrated into the posts in a way that provides the readers an understanding of the story and helps with your imagination. For example, in the story "What the Moon Is," an image of the antagonist (the Bunyip) is provided so that readers know what the originators of the story wanted the monster to look like:

Bunyip Image Source: MacroBusiness

All in all, these Storybooks each have different elements that I would like to use in my own Storybook, as well as provide me examples of things that I would like to change/not use. It is always good to look back at what people have done in the past in order to help yourself move forward.