Our summer program for this past week featured a lovely Storyteller, and so I built off of the idea of her as the hero of the day to pick a trio of Heroine-focused stories for our family storytime that morning. I was away, so I sadly didn't get to give the stories, but I have done all of them as performances or storytime titles before.
I tried to pick a nice variety of heroines, and I think I ended up with a fun sampling.
Flossie and the Fox
Patricia McKissack, illustrated by Rachel Isadora
ISBN: 0803702507
Reviewed here.
So so good. Love everything about this story.
Daisy and the Beastie
Jane Simmons
ISBN: 0316797855
Soft-edged paintings showcase a duckling's-eye viewpoint on the big bad world.
Simmons has a set of Daisy stories, and I've read each and every one of them to storytime audiences and to relatives, but for some reason, Daisy and the Beastie is the recurring favorite. Daisy and Pip are on Grandpa duck's farm, and he tells them the spooky barnyard story of the "beastie" - whereupon they set out to find it. Daisy is plucky and opinionated, and I love how she cares for and reassures little Pip. A quality heroine for the youngest readers.
Ladybug Girl
David Soman, illustrated by Jacky Davis
ISBN: 9780803731950
Origin story for a NYTimes bestselling phenom, and several other books.
Soman's Ladybug Girl is another where all of the books make the rounds of storytime when I need an instant classic. Much like the Violet Mackerel series, Ladybug Girl shows off the development of social skills and moral behavior, without being overtly moralizing or sermonizing, or tying these universal human qualities to a specific religion or philosophy. In this first installment, Lulu is bored and cranky inside, but she's too small to play in her older brother's ball game. Ladybug Girl arises from the ashes of her cranky mood, rising up to conquer the challenges of playing alone and entertaining herself.
A solid trio, and while I was happy to be able to hand off a solid set of performers to my substitute, I was more than a little sad to miss presenting them myself!
Showing posts with label Flossie and the Fox. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Flossie and the Fox. Show all posts
Monday, June 29, 2015
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Storytelling: Flossie and the Fox, Patricia McKissack (Red Riding Hood)
You might have noticed by now that I enjoy slightly non-standard fairy-tales, or at least versions of them that are enriched by new environments and cultures. Another classic Southern version of a fairy tale that I would dearly love to tell is a version of Red Riding Hood called Flossie and the Fox, put into beautiful picture book form by Patricia McKissack and illustrated by Rachel Isadora. If you've never read it, I encourage you do check it out; it's a perfect blend of cheeky humor and serious storytelling chops.
According to the book itself, this version was told to Ms McKissack when she was a child, by her own storytelling grandfather. More in-depth research is going to be needed to discover whether that story was his alone, or (as I suspect) a "local" version that reflected the lives and circumstances of the people living in that time and place. I'm really hoping that it turns out to be the latter, so that I can help spread the story along myself in the future.
Much like Red Riding Hood in the classic story, Flossie is a young girl who is tasked with traveling though the woods alone with a basket. The circumstances and the heroine of this story are quite different, and that's why I like it so much. In Red Riding Hood, Red is an innocent, and she's totally taken in by the wolf, and too stupid (or innocent) to notice the dramatic and pointed differences in dear old granny. This of course culminates in the ending where both Red and granny have to be saved by a third party introduced for that sole purpose. None of that passive innocence here - Flossie is a force to be reckoned with.
Like Red, she is carrying a basket, but in Flossie's case, taking eggs to a neighbor whose hens have been scared off of laying by a roaming fox. Now, Flossie holds that she's never seen a fox before, but she's perfectly willing to do the neighborly thing and make sure those eggs get to the neighbor.
Once in the woods, our fox approaches, but unlike dear sweet innocent Red Riding Hood, Flossie has this encounter (and the several which follow) totally under control. Her sweet innocent game completely sideswipes the poncy fox, who is distraught that this slip of a girl won't believe he is even a fox, let alone that she should be afraid of him! He brings in various other animals to help plead his case, but the girl stubbornly refuses to see reason - that is, until the neighbor's house (and the resident hunting dogs) comes into sight, and the dogs recognize the fox perfectly well. Isadora's final illustration of Flossie's bright grin is a perfect ending to the picture book, making sure readers are in on the joke.
I hope that I can find some alternate versions of this story, because between the plucky clever heroine and the gorgeous Southern idioms, I really want to tell this story over and over and over again.
Flossie and the Fox
Patricia C. McKissack, illustrated by Rachel Isadora
ISBN: 0803702507
According to the book itself, this version was told to Ms McKissack when she was a child, by her own storytelling grandfather. More in-depth research is going to be needed to discover whether that story was his alone, or (as I suspect) a "local" version that reflected the lives and circumstances of the people living in that time and place. I'm really hoping that it turns out to be the latter, so that I can help spread the story along myself in the future.
Much like Red Riding Hood in the classic story, Flossie is a young girl who is tasked with traveling though the woods alone with a basket. The circumstances and the heroine of this story are quite different, and that's why I like it so much. In Red Riding Hood, Red is an innocent, and she's totally taken in by the wolf, and too stupid (or innocent) to notice the dramatic and pointed differences in dear old granny. This of course culminates in the ending where both Red and granny have to be saved by a third party introduced for that sole purpose. None of that passive innocence here - Flossie is a force to be reckoned with.
Like Red, she is carrying a basket, but in Flossie's case, taking eggs to a neighbor whose hens have been scared off of laying by a roaming fox. Now, Flossie holds that she's never seen a fox before, but she's perfectly willing to do the neighborly thing and make sure those eggs get to the neighbor.
Once in the woods, our fox approaches, but unlike dear sweet innocent Red Riding Hood, Flossie has this encounter (and the several which follow) totally under control. Her sweet innocent game completely sideswipes the poncy fox, who is distraught that this slip of a girl won't believe he is even a fox, let alone that she should be afraid of him! He brings in various other animals to help plead his case, but the girl stubbornly refuses to see reason - that is, until the neighbor's house (and the resident hunting dogs) comes into sight, and the dogs recognize the fox perfectly well. Isadora's final illustration of Flossie's bright grin is a perfect ending to the picture book, making sure readers are in on the joke.
I hope that I can find some alternate versions of this story, because between the plucky clever heroine and the gorgeous Southern idioms, I really want to tell this story over and over and over again.
Flossie and the Fox
Patricia C. McKissack, illustrated by Rachel Isadora
ISBN: 0803702507
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