The first storybook that captured my attention is a continuation of a storybook from the Myth-Folklore class,
"My Brothers Grimm: The Diary of the Only Grimm Sister." This second part to the storybook is called "Grimm in India," and it follows the exploits of John Christiansen, the husband of Charlotte Grimm, after he is kidnapped and taken to India. John is expected to help solve some of the problems currently facing the unusual companions that he now finds himself with, including helping Rama defeat the demon Ravana. For a part of the storybook, there is is also a side story following Charlotte, accompanied by her useless brothers, and her search for John. They eventually meet up, and Charlotte is instrumental in Kali's defeat of the demon Raktabija. The storybook was creative, funny, and interesting, with a framework story that was well fleshed out. The storybook continuation approach was quite inspiring, and if I am creative enough to figure out a way, I hope to do something similar.
The storybook "Dharma News Weekly" was extremely creative, and I enjoyed the overarching theme of the author, which attempted to illustrate the concept of dharma in a way that was more accessible to a modern, western audience. Each individual story was written in the form of a newspaper article. For example, The Arts and Culture section of the paper included a review of the new album by gangster rapper Ravana. This was followed by Celebrity News, and a gossipy story about Queen Sita. The design of the storybook was thoughtful, and did an excellent job of presenting these stories as distinct, but related articles in a newspaper.
"Vahana Therapy" is a storybook about a support group for the vahanas of several gods that has been organized by Ganesh. Each of the vahana are encouraged by Ganesh to tell a story, in an effort to come to terms with some situation or feeling that they need to address. I enjoyed it, because it is so very different from how I would approach telling a story. I would have never thought of such a framework, but it made so much sense once I began reading it!
Image Sources:
Rama and Lakshmana
The Earth, centered on India
Ganesh
I am so glad you looked at Charlotte Grimm in India, Nancy! There is another paired project set like that:
ReplyDeleteFairytale Case Files
Fairytale Case Files: India
If you want to try out a project that embraces both classes somehow, that would be fine with me. It's pretty rare for people to take both classes at once (a lot of people have done both, but not at the same time), so I don't have any examples of that, but I am open to any/all ideas, so you can decide if you want to do some kind of mash-up/class-crossing experiment of some kind! as you can see, people have chosen all kinds of topics and styles in both classes over the years. :-)