Author's Note: When I initially read the two stories The Mouse and The Lion and The Married Mouse in Aesop's Fables (Jacobs and Crane), I thought it was very creative that someone had taken the original and added a sequel. I immediately knew I wanted to work with these stories in some way. In the stories, a mouse accidentally wakes a lion when it is scurrying around on top of it. The mouse convinces the lion not to kill him because he may be useful to the lion some day. The lion was not so much convinced that the mouse would be helpful, but was delighted by the prospect. The mouse later does save the lion by chewing him out of the trap. In the sequel, the mouse asks to marry the lion's daughter as a reward. The lion agrees but not long after the marriage the lioness accidentally squashes the mouse under her paw. Since there was already a sequel involved, I did not think the story needed any plot extension. So, I decided on a complete format change while maintaining the original story line. I also added in the character of the Cheetah as an outside observer of the events taking place. It was fun working with the Facebook (or should I say Manebook) simulator and I hope you enjoy the story as much as I enjoyed creating it.
Bibliography: The two stories The Mouse and The Lion and The Married Mouse are from Aesop's Fables. The first is from the version by Jacobs 1894 and the second is from The Baby's Own Aesop illustrated by Crane in 1887. To make the Facebook posts, Simitator was used. The profile pictures of the Lion, Mouse, Cheetah, and Lioness can be found at their respective links.
Oh my gosh!!!!!!! I am so glad I happened to notice this pop up in the posts, Eryn: it is BRILLIANT. Most people don't know about the version with the sequel which is already something funny... and your AnimalBook approach is fantastic. I especially like having a character like Cheetah there to show us that big cats stick together and support each other at AnimalBook. I know your readers are going to really enjoy this, so if you had fun doing this, you might want to think about it as a possible project for the class. Nobody has ever done Facebook for Aesop like this before. This Facebook style of dialogue is so cool, very different from traditional dialogue, and it brings the characters to life perfectly. What a blast! THANK YOU!
ReplyDeleteGood job on this story! I really enjoyed it and it was a really easy read. I liked the humor that you involved in your story especially with the comments on the posts. My favorite part about the comments was the double post. That happens all the time in real life! I like how you did the facebook style. It was like the lion was updating everyone about his life events. I also liked how you included the sequel because it completes the story. I'm looking forward to reading more stories by you.
ReplyDeleteGreat story, Eryn! Wow! I loved how you told your story through Facebook status updates. That is so cool! How did you manage to do that? I also liked how you made the lion reply twice. That was funny! I wonder why the lion thought that he could trust the mouse after he saved him that one time? Was it because he knew that if the mouse caused him any trouble that he could punish him in a heartbeat? I understand that the mouse set the lion free from the trap, but can you explain to me exactly how he managed to do that? Was it a small trap? Was it a trap that was not put together that well? I wonder what would have happened if the lion rejected the mouse's request of marrying his daughter. What would the mouse had done? Overall, great story and I look forward to reading more of your work!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting formatting the stories as Facebook posts.. definitely didn't expect that. It made it easy to read since there weren't long paragraphs, and also because we are all (I assume) quite familiar with the Facebook format. Cheetah was an interesting character to add into the story as an outsider. Including the sequel also made the story feel complete.. without it, I imagine the readers would be left hanging.
ReplyDeleteThis was just an interesting way to tell story. I am surprised and impressed by your creativity. It was definitely easier to observe and easier to focus as well. Great job! I was just wondering why this mouse wanted the lioness, the daughter of lion. Was it really because he thought lioness was beautiful and wanted to have her as his wife or was there another intention for it? I mean mouse is little tiny to marry a gigantic lion. Mouse should have known that! If it was really because he loved her, it would be great to see more eagerness in his comment, like he really want to love her and he cannot live with her or something. I loved this new storytelling style very much. It is hilarious that animals are using social network! I liked how easy it is and how fun it is to read. Cheetah was a great sauce which made your story more interesting.
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome! Definitely a different and unique way to tell a story... I like how you did something different than the typical story. As it seems, it was something that most people were not expecting and thats a good thing. I love animals too so it made the story more interesting for me from the start. With the Facebook posts, I think you started giving people ideas and made people realize that there are other ways to write than just the typical typing a story and posting it. Good job!
ReplyDeleteI stumbled on to this story and the Facebook posts caught my attention! How hilarious and creative! The way you formatted your story definitely kept me engaged until the very end. I felt bad for the lioness. You can clearly detect her lack of enthusiasm for marrying the mouse. Dear lord, what a tragic ending! She crushed him! It is pretty funny though because he's such a tiny creature compared to the huge lioness. I enjoyed reading this! Keep it up!
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