Unit 11 - The storyteller visits

Good afternoon!

We did two very interesting things today: we got a storyteller to visit us and we reversed a tale.

This is the story our storyteller told us:

A long time ago, the raven looked down from the sky and saw that the people of the world were living in darkness. The ball of light was kept hidden by a selfish old chief.

So the raven turned himself into a leaf and floated on the river where the chief's daughter came for water.

She drank the leaf and became pregnant. She gave birth to a boy, who was the raven in disguise.

The baby cried and cried until the chief gave him the ball of light to play with.

As soon as he had the light, the raven turned back into himself.

The raven carried the light into the sky.

From then on, we no longer lived in darkness.

Of course, there were questions:

• What was the ball of light?. [Answer]
  The ball of light was the Sun.
• Who kept the ball hidden?. [Answer]
  The selfish old chief.
• What did the raven turn into?. [Answer]
  The raven turned into a leaf.

Did you like the way she told the story? What do you think of Native American tales?

As for the reversed tale, here is the text:

Jack’s mother died while he was a very little child, leaving him to the care of his father and his step-brothers, who were very much older than himself. Now, Jack’s brothers did not love him, and were very unkind to him. As he grew older they made him work as a servant.

He was a very sweet-tempered, good boy, however, and everybody (except his cruel brothers) loved him.

When Jack was about seventeen years old the King of that country gave a ball. All people of the land were invited. Jack's brothers made him dress them for the ball, but never thought of allowing him to go there.

Most of you did recognise the story and pointed the main differences with Cinderella. What did you think about it? Do you think tales are just tales? Does the gender of the character matter?