Reading Diary B: Tejas Stories

I finished up reading the second half of the Tejas Legends unit and kept a few notes about what stories were my favorites. This ended up being a really cool unit for me to read. I enjoyed the stories of creation the most just because I find them to be the most amusing. Here are the favorite stories I mentioned above:

How Sickness Entered the World 

I found this story to be really entertaining. I really liked how there was to be a messenger or somewhat of a savior from the Great Spirit. This brought a small sense of a cliffhanger because it left me wondering who or what would come and what would be the great plan he would bring? Two tribe members killed the messenger, who was a snake, effectively ruining the Great Spirit's plan. The snake's mate came at night and laid eggs of sickness. I thought this was a great portrayal of how sickness came to be in the world. It reminded me a little bit of a horror movie that had a plague as the main culprit.

Paisona, Hater of the Rattlesnake

This story gave me visions of the Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoon. I could easily see this story involving the coyote instead of the rattlesnake. I think I could definitely write a storytelling blog post using the cartoon characters and changing up the plot just a little bit. I really liked the last line or two where it described how the roadrunner always looks around before going into its home to make sure the rattlesnake is not following him.

Wile E. Coyote planning his next attempt at the Roadrunner (Deviant Art).

Reading Diary A: Tejas Stories

I let the crystal ball choose what unit for me to read and it chose the unit of Tejas Stories. While I read I kept a few notes about my favorite stories throughout my reading of the first half of the unit. I liked the first half of this unit because it contained many stories about creation and origin.

How the North Wind Lost His Hair

I liked this story because it described why the warm wind is found in the South and the cold strong wind is in the North. It also described how Spanish moss came to be found in the trees. I thought the battle between the two winds was a great way to describe and detail how the warmer wind came to be in the South. Also, the description of the two winds was very good. Using the cold wind as an old and gray wind that no one liked compared to a strong and young wind that everyone loved because he was a native there.


Why the Woodpecker Pecks

I found this story amusing just because the ending was not expected. I was wondering how they would make the story of the missing children into why a woodpecker pecks on the trees. I liked how the medicine men told the tribe many times to not eat the mescal buttons and even though they began to all eat it and saw no consequences it came back to bite them in the end because Manitou hid their children in hollow trees.



Woody the Woodpecker (Deviant Art).