Disclaimer:

Disclaimer: If you are easily offended by sheer honesty, or you think me having my own opinions is "being negative", then this is not the place for you, and I suggest you leave and head elsewhere. I call a spade a spade, and I don't sugarcoat anything.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Story Discussion

I've discussed a few stories put out by our group on this blog, I'd like to point out a little bit more about some favorite stories I have. Yes, I do have some favorites. Some would say that is like choosing your one child over another to be your favorite, but I don't see it that way. I never choose any of my own stories as my favorites. It's always those of some of my friends. Likewise, they tend to choose some of my stories for their favorites. It's just a personal rule I have though not to favor any of my own over any of my friends' stories. Don't ask me why!! I cannot explain all my own weird personal rules!!



The Mischievous Mongoose is one story that faced quite a bit of controversy in the beginning. It was originally completed by Katrina O'hara in April of 1986, no this was not my baby sis. Just a very close friend. In those days, stories about mongooses were few and far between. In fact, when people saw the word "mongoose" anywhere in the story, the first thing that came to their minds was "Rikki Tikki Tavi". So in the beginning, Kate heard a lot of "This story sounds like Rikki Tikki Tavi!" Especially that originally, the story begins in a pasture in India and is about a mongoose who loses it's mother while she is on a hunting trip, and later on after being adopted by the hunter who killed her mother, stows away on a ship heading to Africa. So Kate re-wrote the story, and made the mongoose a larger example than the one displayed as Rikki Tikki, in a field in South America, where mongooses have been introduced, but not naturally associated with. The mongoose she created specifically for the story is one of these from my site:





That is a great leap from being "too much like Rikki Tikki"!! In fact, this is like a cross between a mongoose and a very large panther! It was great for the story!! Diana, as the mongoose was named, did keep her primordial instincts about killing snakes, and that may have also been a thing that confused the readers. But that's a mongoose for you, and one this big could really take on a 6-foot Indian cobra and win!! Not like Rikki tikki, who would have been killed instantly by those things that were probably 5 times his size!!!

In the final version of this story, Diana is born in a field in Chile, her mother is shot and killed after being surprised by a hunter and his dog and attempting to attack them. The hunter finds the orphaned cub hunkered down in the grass and brings her home. The next day while exploring, she winds up in a shipyard and is accidentally taken on board of a ship heading to San Diego. There, she meets Jasper, a lemur, and Katie, a squirrel. At first they are confused about what Diana is. They'd never seen a mongoose before, and especially none like Diana! Diana is homesick though and wants to go back, but Jasper and Katie don't know this and just think she is sick. So they take her to a vet. It is here that Diana gets her first glimpse of a snake, as a wild garter snake races across the floor of the waiting room. Her old instincts kick in and she chases it all over the place. Finally both wind up in the main gasline vent and the whole building explodes! Katie and Jasper are seen in the rubble. But in the midst of all that, Diana did get her quarry!! She proudly retrieves it back to Katie and Jasper who are still up to their necks in kindling from the explosion.

This actually goes on several times. Diana is as curious as any cub! And just as full of silly antics. When the story was completed I invited my ma to try it out on an unbiased audience. She babysat for 4 kids, all under the age of 7, at that time, and read the story to them. Now, there was a new complaint. The story was a bit too rough. Because Diana does kill snakes in the story, it is not really recommended for small children. Although that was in '86. Kids were still considered innocent back then. Kids today are not so innocent. They might be better able to handle situations like this now. However, I still classify it as not being suitable for children under 7, or even 10. I don't want some freaked-out parent coming on our site saying that the story was too violent and gave their 5-year old nightmares after reading that story (or it being read to them). At the same time, it is a funny story!! Kate was a funny person. It's a shame she died later that year.

Caroline, the Sequel is another funny story by the same author. It was first completed in February of 1984. It's kindof a companion to an earlier story, but not necessarily part 2. Caroline is a loony lemur (before I met Kate, I had no idea at all what a lemur is!) and she wakes up early one morning and cannot get back to sleep. Katie the squirrel is also in this story. She and Caroline are inseparable companions. But sometimes Caroline gets on Katie's nerves!! This story is one of those cases. So because Caroline cannot sleep, she bugs the heck out of Katie, asking her if she'd like to join her in their TV room. Katie is tired but she reluctantly complies. While they are in the TV room, Katie falls asleep on the sofa, as Caroline sits in front of the television watching whatever is on at that hour. It was then that Caroline hears a noise in the kitchen and thinks they may have intruders. So she wakes up Katie yet again and urges her to check out what is in the kitchen. It isn't until Katie herself hears these noises that she feels she should check it out. Before she even sees what, or who, is in the kitchen, she plans a counter-attack. Guess what she does find in the kitchen.....I cannot tell! I don't want to give away too much of the story!

Depending on the level of sensitivity in the child, this story is recommended more for older children. Not necessarily a 7 or 8 year old. But more like 9 to 14.

Sandy, the Seal Who Feared the Water is another very good story. It was originally completed early in 1980 by Trisha Greenbush, the founder of our little group. She first wrote the story for her church daycare group. During the long sermons, the toddlers were kept in the basement of their church, which was converted into a school and daycare, with supervisors who read them stories, played games with them and gave the kids snacks. Well, Trisha would sometimes create stories for the daycare that the kids never heard before. The story has nothing to do with GOD or Jesus, it was just entertainment for the children while they waited for the sermon to end and the parents to pick up their kids. This story was a hit with the kids, and the parents!

Sandy is a seal unlike any other. She is too afraid to go into the water. Like a lot of people, Sandy fears the unknown, and the water is too deep and too dark to go into. So, she sits on the ice and just stares into this little opening to the ocean. She has one loyal friend, a walrus named Greta, who does all she can to get Sandy's confidence up enough to set flipper into the water. Even a threat by a polar bear cannot get Sandy to go into the water! She hides underneath a huge glacier instead. Greta eventually has enough and tries to force Sandy into the water. She pushes and prods but Sandy refuses to dip!! Finally, later on, Sandy does make it into the water. Guess how it happens? I cannot tell you, I don't want to give away the story.

This story is great for all ages, but it was mostly made with children under 10 years old in mind.

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