CinderHazel

          CinderHazel is a children’s traditional literature book. This book is considered traditional literature because it is a variant of the fairy tale Cinderella. This fairy tale has been told for thousands of years. The earliest written version came from China around the 9^th century A.D. This fairy tale first originated orally. There are over 1500 different variants of this fairy tale. CinderHazel has the same story line of the original fairy tale but has some differences. This variant is the Halloween version.  

            CinderHazel was a very cute book about a girl named Hazel, her two stepsisters and her stepmother. All the characters in this book were witches, who could fly on brooms and cast spells. Hazel, on the other hand, used her broom to sweep up dirt, instead of flying; she claims to really "like" dirt. Like Cinderella, there was a ball that all the witches were going to because Prince Alarming was looking for a bride. CinderHazel was told she couldn't go, because of course, who would want to be seen with a girl who was so dirty. Upset, CinderHazel was going to prove her sisters wrong and go to that ball. When she tried to fly to the ball on her broom she heard, "ker-rrrrrack!" Just when she decided to stay home CinderHazel's "witchy godmother "appeared. The witchy godmother informs CinderHazel that she must go to the ball because not only does the palace have 15 fire places, but Prince Alarming is the King of Dirt! The witchy godmother casts some spells to get CinderHazel ready for the ball by transforming her broken broom into a vacuum. CinderHazel showed up to the ball COVERED in dirt and all the women had mistaken her as Prince Alarming, the King of Dirt! The book continues on and gives the reader a good laugh. So what do YOU think will happen when the witches realize, that the person covered in dirt, is really CinderHazel?

                The story of CinderHazel contains many elements of traditional literature. The setting is very vague. “It was another day in the dustbin for Hazel.” This is the first line of the book and is the only time the setting is mentioned throughout the story. This story is also considered a fairy tale because it contains witches and magic. This story also includes motifs such as magic and flying. These motif examples come from the spells cast in the story and also the flying the witches do to get to the ball.

            I really enjoyed reading this book. I think that some traditional literature books tend to get boring and are easy to lose the attention of the reader. However, this book kept me interested the whole way through. I know that most children love Halloween so this would be easy to use to keep their attention but to also teach about traditional literature. I think it would be neat to read the original variant of Cinderella and then to read a different variant, and explain how traditional literature books have different variants. This book allows for many fun activities to do with the class including Halloween activity and even research style learning.

            Our last blog was over poetry, this week we blogged about traditional literature, any ideas or guesses of what we will be blogging about next?

 

Review of Dainty Dottie Dee: Poetry

 

Dainty Dottie Dee by James Stevenson

                This is a poem about a woman named Dottie Dee who is overly obsessive about cleaning stuff. This woman doesn't just clean like the "normal" person would. If Dottie Dee saw a bug, "she tidies up that bug." Dottie Dee even washes her shampoo but she has a very strange cleaning habit that is revealed in the end of the poem. 

The sound devices used in this poem were rhyme and rhythm. Rhyme is displayed as every other line in the poem has an end rhyming word. This poem had a rhythm to it as you read that just formed and flows naturally. The rhyme and rhythm used in this writing are the two elements used to make it poetry.

                I enjoyed this poem because although it was silly I can think of a few women I know myself who tend to go overboard like Dottie Dee when it comes to cleaning. Some of the lines and actions of Dottie Dee don't even make sense as why someone would "wax the salami", but it's a fun poem and gets the readers mind wondering. The poem was very interesting and gets the readers attention from the very beginning. The rhythm of this poem was easy to catch onto which made it easy to read aloud to my peers.