Reading Diary B: Chinese Fairy Tales

The unit that I am reading this week (Chinese Fairy Tales) is really interesting to me. The stories are all quiet different. I really like how the majority of the stories spend a lot of time on the setting of the story, and how the actions of the story are set up. There were several stories that I particularly liked while I was reading however.

I really like the story called The Lady of the Moon. It's about a woman who takes an immortality potion and floats up into the sky and lives in a palace on the moon. The story does not have a whole lot of action in it, which surprises me that I still really liked it. It focuses a lot on describing the setting of the moon, what is on it, how it looks, etc. I really loved the descriptions a lot. They seemed magical and whimsical. The descriptions were so vivid that I could easily picture the scene in my head. I found myself wanting to create a story in this very setting.

Women placing silkworms onto bamboo screens

I also really liked the story The Girl with the Horse's Head or the Silkworm Goddess. This story was quite interesting, and though it was a little confusing at some parts, I really liked its ending. I loved how this story seemed to have a lot of action. I even felt a little bit of suspense while I was reading it. The story was very different as well. It was so unlike any fairy tale that I have ever read. It still had the same magic and wonder weaved into it though. I would love to read a more extended version of this story, to have someone drag it out into a full length novel, maybe.