Folk and Fairy Tale sets/ Life Update

A post I wrote for the NaturalKids Team blog, which you may find here, highlights some folk and fairy tale-themed creations my fellow artisans have in their shops. There should be more next month, as the team is working on a "fairy tale challenge" right now. I'm kicking around the idea of making the sun, the moon, and the stars in personified form as part of a Seven Ravens set. I suspect many of our offerings will come from retellings by Grimm and Perrault, and I would like to break from choosing Western European stories without being a culture vulture.

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Speaking of fairy tale stories, summer is almost over, I have performances coming up next week, and I need to polish my new stories. I've enjoyed being at home out in the world with my daughter this summer. We can actually do things together now. My aunt jokes that Lucia was in "boot camp," because Lucia walked 4-5 miles and read two books every week day during the summer.

I'm training Lucia to do stair-climbing for The Big Climb next March, and yesterday, she stair-climbed 293 steps four times. That's 1, 172 steps. Meanwhile, I'm training to run my first 5k this autumn for Run Scared, while Lucia and her daddy walk the 4k portion (almost 2.5 miles).

Out in the world, I try to be low-key about my daughter's progression, but here on this blog, let me be braggy for a moment:

GO, LUCIA, GO!

(Pretend there's a scrolling marquee tag for that.)

Kindness to Animals in Stories

I've always been a fan of fairy tales where the main character's kindness to animals helps him or her become the hero of the story.
The Queen Bee, by the Brothers Grimm is a good example. Baba Yaga and the Girl With the Kind Heart is another. Sometimes the main character is even mighty, and displays the wisdom of having humility even when one is rich and powerful, such as the legend of King Solomon and the Bee. You'll notice that the Solomon story has a similar motif as that of "The Queen Bee."

Those are some of my favorite stories in which compassion toward animals (and in the case of Baba Yaga, toward things too!) is rewarded. What are yours?

The Scullery Boy Remembers

Happy New Year! I'm pleased to announce that my short story, The Scullery Boy Remembers, is now published in Enchanted Conversation, an online journal of fairytales. The theme of the premiere issue is Sleeping Beauty. I was inspired by this passage from the Grimms' version of the story:

The horses, too, went to sleep in the stable, the dogs in the yard, the pigeons upon the roof, the flies on the wall; even the fire that was flaming on the hearth became quiet and slept, the roast meat left off frizzling, and the cook, who was just going to pull the hair of the scullery boy, because he had forgotten something, let him go, and went to sleep.

Life is a fairy tale (i.e. filled with challenges)

In Deconstructing a Fairy Tale, Colleen Mondor of Chasing Ray writes about the misconceptions regarding the nature of fairy tales plus a teaser review of a soon-to-be released retelling of Cinderella that captures the true spirit of struggle and sorrow in the story.

Enchanted Conversation: Call for Submissions

Enchanted Conversation, "a journal where lovers of fairy tales can write and read and find community" is calling for submissions for its first issue! The theme for the first issue is focused on the "Sleeping Beauty" fairy tale. Guidelines for submissions can be found on the site and authors will be paid for their work. The deadline for this first issue is November 15, 2009, so you have some time to create and revise.

Goth Waldorf!

The latest Etsy shop to delight me is that of Silver Acorn. I think of a lot of Acorngirl's wee felt people fall under the category of "Goth Waldorf" (if there's no such term, I'm coining it now). Her wee felt girl in a purple jumper is how I would envision a recreation of Lydia Purpuraria, the patron saint of dyers. No, Lydia didn't run around with Tyrian purple hair. That would have been expensive and stinky.

I recently purchased a Silver Acorn princess doll for Lucia's birthday. Lucia is a big fan of Jane Ray's rendition of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, and the doll reminded me of Ray's drawings. Even though Lucia's favorite of the Twelve Dancing Princesses doesn't have red hair, I may give the doll a tiny wool felt sun mask on a stick if I have the time and inclination to make it. Lucia loves that sun mask so much that Bede made her a paper mask on a straw stick for her to hold when she dressed up as the eldest princess.

Tidbits for Friday the 13th

Here's the latest on the Consumer Protection Safety Improvement Act:

CPSIA: It's February 10th, So Now What?

Even though small businesses don't have to undergo testing of their items for children another year (but are liable if their products end up having a certain amount of lead or Phthalates), I'm still creating my nature table figures for people who are over twelve years of age. If you don't think that grownups still play with dolls, just take a look at the Star Wars action figures and LEGO industries.

I don't have much else to report. I have a number of projects in the works, including a promotional storytelling video that VersantMedia is going to be filming on February 28. Take a look at VersantMedia's current projects. I'm there. I've got my regular bookstore gigs, plus a school visit coming up, but no birthday parties scheduled for the near future. The winter months are usually slow in terms of birthday parties, but I suspect our current economy is a factor too. Therefore, I'm glad that most of my gigs will be free to the public over the next few months.

I've also decided to open an Etsy storefront. Currently, it's just a placeholder, but by late spring, I hope to have nature table figures to offer in the shop. I plan to offer both the larger nature table figures with the elaborate embroidery and smaller root children/bulb babies. Like Bookshelves of Doom finds ways to support her habit, perhaps I'll find a way to justify my textiles expenses.

I will leave you with one of my favorite fairy tales. The link has full text, hypertext annotations, and a graphic list of the variants that star the most fascinating, complex character in Russian folklore, the great and terrible Baba Yaga. The story is Vassilisa the Beautiful, by Post Wheeler, and it comes to you courtesy of Sur La Lune Fairytales.com

Diamonds and Toads: a Fairy Tale Blog

Diamonds and Toads is a blog devoted to the study and research of fairy tales. Why didn't I know about this blog before? It's right up my alley. I found it when I was reading a comment thread on Sarah Beth Durst's Obscure Fairy Tales page. Speaking of "Diamonds and Toads," here is Durst's commentary on "Mother Holle", the Grimms' version of that tale.

Rapunzel Battles the Gruffalo

From the New York Times parenting blog Motherlode, Are Fairy Tales Too Scary For Children? by Lisa Belkin:

Of the 3,000 British parents polled by the TheBabyWebsite.com, earlier this month, 50percent said they would not read fairy tales to their children until they were at least five-years-old. Of those, 20 percent said they rejected the oldies as politically incorrect, while close to that number, 17 percent, said the stories would give their children nightmares.

I'll let you read the rest of the post without quoting the best bits here. While I'm glad that the discussion of fairy tales continues to thrive, I'd like to see more mainstream articles move beyond the "Are fairy tales good for children?" motif to discussing children's reactions to particular fairy tales and delving into some of the lesser-known stories.

Check out The Princess Questionnaire. The post will only be up until January 19th, as it's part of the author's thesis.

Thanks to Pipers at the Gates of Dawn for the article and tony.dowler.com for the princess thesis link.

Fear of Fairy Tales, by Joanna Weiss

Recently published was this article by Joanna Weiss of The Boston Globe called Fear of Fairy Tales.

From the article:

Fairy tale" may be our shorthand for castles and happy endings, but these classic stories have villains, too - nefarious witches, bloodthirsty wolves, stepmothers up to no good. And scholars have come to see the stories' dark elements as the source of their power, not to mention their persistence over the centuries. Rich in allegory, endlessly adaptable, fairy tales emerged as a framework for talking about social issues. When we remove the difficult parts - and effectively do away with the stories themselves - we're losing a surprisingly useful common language.

Children learn some fairy tales too early in life, and those versions are the sanitized, defanged versions. I talked a little bit about how I was revealing fairy tales to my daughter bit by bit in the post Secrets I Keep from My Daughter. She looked forward to "Snow White" for what felt like a long time to her, and then we worked with that fairy tale for awhile. The big question that arose from multiple readings of the story was, "Where did Snow White's soul go when her body was in the coffin?"

Thanks to Big A, little a for the link.

Sarah Beth Durst's Obscure Fairy Tales

Filed under "Things I Wish I Had Thought of Myself," here is author Sarah Beth Durst's collection of Obscure Fairy Tales, complete with commentary. For all the times you wondered, "What part of 'my brothers were turned into swans by a woman in a gown and crown with a majestic bearing and an evil disposition' did not arouse suspicion? (The Seven Swans) or, in the case of Molly Whuppie, "What sort of engineer makes a bridge of one hair? And how is she able to cross it? And why doesn't the giant petition the town to have a sturdier bridge built? It can't be good for trade." You'll find commentary on some of the not-so-obscure tales: Red Riding Hood, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty all get their due as well.

The Annotated Frog Prince

Julie Danielson, a.k.a. Jules of the fabulous Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast duo, created a lovely annotated Frog Prince/Frog King webpage when she was in library school. These kinds of projects illustrate how useful hypertext links can be in reading material. The "Quiz" feature is no longer active (and I'm really curious now to find out what it originally entailed) but just about everything else should be in place for you to find out the intricacies of this story that often begins Grimms' fairy tale collections.

I once wrote a poem about the Frog Prince. Reading it gave my friends the feeling of claustrophobia, which was a accurate assessment of how I felt about the story. There's lots to study with layers of meaning (different layers, depending upon who's interpreting the story), but everyone except the Frog Prince's servant, Iron Henry, is pretty irritating to the point of being stifling. The princess is spoiled, the frog is pushy, and the king tells the princess that she has to keep her promise when the reader gets the feeling the princess is too young to be involved in a binding contract. Also, who started the rumor that the princess kissed the frog? At the climax of the story, what frees the frog from his enchantment is not an act of love but one of violence. This is no Beauty and the Beast.

The Girl in the Tower

Thanks to Fuse#8 for posting Alison Lurie's piece on Rapunzel in The New York Review of Books: The Girl in the Tower.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel

April 10, 2008 update: Elaine Magliaro of Wild Rose Reader has posted an original Rapunzel poem.


One of my favorite Rapunzel renditions

I figured Disney would never try to make "Rapunzel" into a film because of what a sad story it really is. There's a happy ending, but it's not tidily wrapped up: Mother Gothel, the antagonist of the story, is still at large, and somewhere in the world, Rapunzel's parents are still mourning the loss of their daughter taken from them at birth. In an early version of the story, Rapunzel unwittingly reveals her prince's secret visits by asking Mother Gothel, "Why is my dress getting so tight around my stomach?" and in all versions, Rapunzel has given birth to twins by the time the prince finds her again. In both versions, Rapunzel did not have premarital sex-- the text clearly states that they were married in the tower. They married themselves, and I totally buy it. For the purpose of the fairy tale, the device works.

Unbeknown to me before now, Disney has had plans for Rapunzel for years. Despite my misgivings about a lot of Disney films, I'm keen to see an original, newly-imagined fairy tale in The Princess and the Frog. I'm not sure why they're bothering with "Rapunzel," and I cringe to think of what they're going to do to the storyline. (Yes, I'll probably see it eventually, but I reserve the right to grizzle and groan.) Here's to hoping that "The Goose Girl" and "Toads and Diamonds" are unpalatable to the Disney franchise....


Another one of my favorite Rapunzel renditions

Silver Slippers

Ever since I read the Brothers Grimm version of Cinderella, which featured both silver and gold slippers, I fancied a pair of silver slippers for my own. After reading L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, whereby Dorothy wears silver shoes* (the ruby slippers were created for the film), I only wished for them more. However, there were a lot of beautiful things I wanted-- not necessarily to own, but to enjoy in some capacity.

LoneStarMa convinced me that my storytelling outfits would not be complete without the silver slippers. I ordered a pair of ballet slippers for myself, and a smaller pair for Lucia. The first night she wore the slippers, Lucia danced around the room, admiring her reflection in the glass door to her room. Now, she only takes the slippers off when she has to. When Philip the Pun last babysat, Lucia attempted to convince her "Uncle Phil" that she needed to wear her silver slippers to bed to keep her feet warm. Since Lucia is a girl who likes to run around barefoot when the rest of us are shivering, Uncle Phil remained unswayed.


*If you'd like to read about the populism theory of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, whereby the yellow brick road is the gold standard of currency and the silver shoes represent the "free and unlimited coinage of silver," take out your magnifying glass and click here .

Kertyschoo*

I'm sick. We're all sick. Blech. Here's a fairy tale about a man who learned from a sage that he would die after sneezing three times: How An Old Man Waited For Death. According to The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, the wolf's huffing and puffing were simply results of a bad cold. I wonder if there are any fairy tales with titles such as "The Girl With the Running Nose" or "The Three Magic Cough Drops."

Blech.

*This is how Peter Rabbit sneezes.

In Seattle, Snow Always Makes the News

Snow and Ice Snarl Highways

Nightmare Commute for Drivers: Snow, Commute, and a Seahawks Game

Last year, it snowed enough that I thought I should shovel my walkway. All I had was a garden shovel. After 10 minutes, I realized that I really shouldn't bother: the snow would melt by the end of the day.

The joke around here is that there are only two snow plows in the entire city of Seattle. Really, the city allegedly has twenty snow plows, but I don't remember ever seeing one in the seven years I've lived here.

Some stories with snow:

Little Daughter of the Snow, a Russian folktale

Rabbit and Fox, a folktale from the Iroquois Nation

Deirdre of the Sorrows, listed because of its twist on the Snow White description:

One day, Deirdre watched as her fosterer killed a calf to eat. The calf's blood ran bright red in the snow, and a raven swooped down.

"If there were a man with hair as black as that raven, skin as white as that snow, and cheeks as red as that blood, I would wish to marry him," Deirdre said, in what was perhaps the first manifestation of her second sight.

On a cheerier note, you may make your own virtual snowflake here.

Secrets I keep from my daughter

In the second drawer of my bureau, I am hiding a paper Victorian dollhouse that opens into a carousel shape. Lucia has played with a similar paper-dollhouse before, but she is not the most careful of toddlers when it comes to keeping the little pieces all together. I have a "bits box" where I put all of the little crowns and scepters I find on the floors, behind beds, and under couches, but they vanish anyway. Someday, I'll let Lucia play with my paperdoll house. Right now, it's mine, mine, all mine.

I'm also keeping my fairy tale books illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman on the top shelf of my bookcase. Lucia wants me to read them to her, but I'm not ready. That's what I say to her: "I'm not yet ready to read these books to you. Someday, I will read you these books, but not today." We've started reading some folk and fairy tales together, but they're more along the lines of "The Three Billy Goat's Gruff" and "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." Also, "Stone Soup" and "The Old Lady Who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle" are new favorites, too. Lucia won't eat soup, but she does like to hear stories about soup.

As you know, I have some issues with the Disney versions of the fairy tales. As a child, I enjoyed "Sleeping Beauty" and "Cinderella," but I have to be honest with you: what I liked best about the films were the costumes and stage-sets. I couldn't care less about winning the love of the handsome prince (my tastes ran more toward Superman and Han Solo), but oh, those fabulous clothes. I even coveted Cinderella's plain house-dress, and wished I could make a dress like it. Of course, I admired the glittery evening dress with long white gloves. Snow White's clothing didn't thrill me. I thought her dresses lacked proper swish.

I suspect that Lucia will have similar reactions to the Disney films when she finally sees them someday. Her favorite Playmobil dollies are the ones with poofy dresses and their "feet peeping out." Then again, her first word was "gace" (her attempt to say "lace"). Right now, I'm in no hurry for Lucia to see the films. If she gets it into her head that princesses don't wear sleeves on their dresses, it is going to be one long winter around here.

Memo to princesses of the world, royal and otherwise: will you please wear more dresses with long sleeves? I'd appreciate it if you'd wear mittens, coats and hats, too. Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, for the most part, you are off the hook, even though you look a bit chilly here. Put on a sweater. Please. You're making my teeth chatter just by looking at you.

P.S. Today, I started telling Lucia, "Princesses don't eat boogers." Princesses of the world, I'm counting on you to back me up on this one.

Twenty-Five Things That Make Me Happy

A Wrung Sponge asked readers to write down twenty-five things that made them happy. Sure thing! I’ll list my items in groups of 5.

Five children’s books:

1) Constance—Patricia Clapp
2) The School for Cats—Esther Averill
3) Daughter of the Moon—Gregory Maguire
4) Dinner at Alberta’s—Russell Hoban (illustrated by James Marshall)
5) Henrietta’s House (UK)/Blue Hills (USA)—Elizabeth Goudge

Five folktales:

1) Why the Tides Ebb and Flow— retold by Joan Chase Bowden
2) The Old Woman Who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle— retold by Margaret Read MacDonald
3) Two Of Everything— retold by Lily Toy Hong
4) Lazy Jack— retold by Joseph Jacobs
5) “Talk” (i.e. "the talking yam story")—from The Cow-Tail Switch, retold by Harold Courlander

Five finger puppets:

Five camp skits:

1) JC Penny (In my outdoor education class, I saw this skit as "Thom McCann.")
2) Good news and bad news
3) The Man and the Coffin
4) The Most Horrible Thing in the World
5) Moon Trip

Five songs to play on the guitar in the key of G:

1) City of New Orleans
2) Orphan Girl
3) Lavender’s Blue
4) Can’t Let Go
5) On the Sunny Side of the Street

Skeleton Stories

El Dia de Los Muertos (“Day of the Dead”) is one of my favorite holidays, even though I know very little about it other than that as an outsider to Mexican culture. My eyes are that of a tourist’s who sees the pageantry of the celebration but not the whole picture. Still, something makes me kvell to the array of cheerful skeletons.*

Today is All Soul’s Day, and the third day of the El Dia de Los Muertos festival. For the past five years, Bede has successfully restrained me from acquiring Day of the Dead dioramas, but this year, I bought a pop-up card to be my little shrine.

Today, I'm celebrating with skeleton stories:

A funny story:
The Dancing Skeleton
"Oooooweeee! Ain't we havin' fun!"

**A scary/romantic story:
Skeleton Woman
(you can find an in-print version of this story in Women Who Run With the Wolves, by Clarissa Pinkola Estes)

***A scary/creepy story:
Skeleton Woman (& Magic Woman)

And more. If you're just in the mood for a good alphabet book, check out Calavera Abecedario: A Day Of The Dead Alphabet Book, by Jeanette Winter. "F" is for Frida Kahlo!

*I like cheerful skeletons, just as I like cheerful bats.
**I've told this story quite a bit.
***I've told this story more often than I should've.