Once upon a time...Cinderella!

Hello readers! Today i would like to start my post with a question....

If someones asks you about Cinderella, what is it the fisrt thing that appear in your mind?

Probably you are going to think about the most famous version of this tale which was created by Walt Disnery in 1950.

But...did you know that Cinderella is a fairy tale with multiple versions, ral and written, in the entire world?

The story of Cinderella is considerate the most popular fairy tale around the world. This tale is more that 1.000 years old. Only in Europe there are about 500 different versions about this tale!!. We cannot know which is the oriin but it is believed that maybe it has a Chinese origin because the oldest version it is the Chinese version.

Do you know any version of Cinderella?

Some of the versions are:

•  The Cinder Maid, (various European).
• Cinderella or The Little Glass Slipper, (France):
• Katie Woodencloak, (Norway).
• The Broken Pitcher, (England).
• Cinderella, (Germany).
• The Indian Cinderella, (Native American).
• The Hearth-cat, (Portugal).

As you can see there are a lot of versions, and maybe you did not know these. The majority of these versions have common elements, but also there are different changes depending on the place, era, manners...But let me tell you about two of them!

The Cinderella of the Brothers Grimm.

The Brothers Grimm were Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. They were German academics and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the most well know storytellers.

The brothers Grimm wrote one of the most bloody and horrifying versions of Cinderella. The German Cinderella was called Aschenputel. She was helped by some birds and a tree that grow up over her mother's tomb. The tree gave clothes to Cinderella in order to make the prince fell in love with her. The two horrible stepsisters tried to cheat the prince. One of them cut a bit of her heel in order to force ther foot into the shoe, the other girl cut the toe with the same objetive. At the end of the story, the birds pecked out the stepsisters eyes and they became blind.

Cinderella ot the Litlle Glass Slipper of the Charles Perrault.

Charles Perrault was born in Paris in 1628. He was writer. He was famous in tales for children. With his literature he developed the imagination of lot of children.

The current and most famous version of the Cinderella is based in the Charles Perrault version. Perrault softened the story. In this case the France Cinderella was a kind and patient girl, who forgave her stepsisters and when she married and she became princess she invited her stepsisters to the castle and she  made her stepsisters married with two rich men.

Finally, I would like to say that I read the two versions. On the one hand, I am very surprised when I read the Brother Grimm's version, for me it is too horiible how the two stepsisters tried to cheat the prince. This type of version aimed for adult public. On the other hand, I found some differences between the Perrault version and the version that I know (Walt Disnery), but this version did not cause in me the same effect that the first one. This type of version is more aimed for children public. 

Did you know other versions of Cinderella tale?

See you soon reader! 

STORYTELLING!

Hello readers! Today I would like to talk about one interesting topic in children's literature: STORYTELLING!

Children's literature offers a lot of possibilities to work with children, so it is considerable that teachers know how important the aesthetic-literary education is. Poetry and literature is a chance for children to play with language and words. Moreover, as a future educators we have to achieve that children enjoy with it.

Recording the last class, we talked and saw one of the best-know figures in the children's book world: Michael Rosen.

Michael Rosen was born in 1964 in London. He is a British Children's novelist and poet. He started writing poetry when he was twelve. Today he teaches and he lectures in universities about children's literature, reading and writing.

I would like to show you the following video saw in class:

I like so much this video, I think that Michael Rosen achieve a great and attractive story for children. As we saw in class, storytelling must be: active, dynamic, interesting and purposeful and this example is perfect to show how we can elaborate a great storytelling. That is to say, it consists on getting the attention, feeling, curiosity, stimulation and fun of the children. 

Now see this other video:

This other video is the same story but in a different way, with drawings. Both are attractive for children, but from my point of view the first one which use body language is more poweful and dynamic. Furthermore children remember better the story if we use movements and we can use it to make different activities with children after the story.

Do you agree with me? Which video do you like more? Why?

I am very interested to know what it is your opinion about storytelling, Michael Rosen and the videos. 

I would like to end my post saying: " The best thin you can do with poetry is just enjoy reading it together with children" Michael Rosen.

See you sooon reader!

Bibliography.

Michael Rosen (s.d.). Retrieved from the web site: http://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/