Emma Keith

This story was so clever — I loved the main character and his quick wit. While I liked the ending, I kind of wondered where the man went when the story ended. There was some exposition at the beginning that gave background on the man, but there was no follow-up — might he return to his family? Might he make something of himself in another trade or city? I think more details could be helpful with this tale?  I really enjoyed these Georgian stories — so many have really clever plot points, and a few shocked me with their endings. These were a few of my favorites: The Rioni River in Georgia. Courtesy of Tamuna Kakauridze .   Source: Wikipedia .  Master and Pupil I enjoyed this story, but it didn't make too much sense at some points. The devil offered to train the peasant's son, but he didn't specify which craft he would train him in. The peasant should have some motivation for giving his son up to the devil for a year (like if the devil were to train hi...

This reading was surprisingly dark, but I loved all the unique characters I thought the fox motif throughout all the stories was really interesting — several tales featured a fox as the trickster or villain. Here were my favorites from this unit.  Illustration: " Childe Roland." Source: Wikimedia . Molly Whuppie This story was very casually dark and grim, but I did think it was interesting. I would like to retell it from Molly Whuppie's perspective — she's obviously both clever and brave, and unafraid to trick or rob a giant. I think Molly's quite a character, and instead of just marrying the king's son at the end of the story, I'd like to have her become the kingdom's ruler herself — she doesn't seem like the kind of girl who'd be interested in just settling down.  Mr. Fox This story was incredibly spooky and fascinating to me — I actually gasped at the ending where Mr. Fox was cut to pieces. I think this story could work if I reto...

Beowulf. Courtesy of Helen Stratton. Source: Wikimedia . For this set of reading notes, I ventured into the epic tale of Beowulf. One thing I noticed in these stories is the sumptuous language and descriptions the author uses — everything is described in such detail. Since this story is lengthy and has lots of pieces, I would do a retelling with multiple parts of this tale combined. I think I would want to retell it in a more modern context, but keep the characteristics of all the main players in the story.  Maybe Beowulf is a high school athlete who's pretty revered for his strength (a swimmer, to go with the legend about him beating Breca in the water), but who's expected to inherit the family wilderness guide business (a job that requires wits and strength). The other guides would be jealous because of their years of experience in the outdoors compared to his relative youth, and the company would have a rival wilderness guide business that covers different territory. ...