Storybook favorites; The Brother's Grimm, Alice's Journey, & Mermaid CSI

I had a hard time just picking three storybooks, because a lot of them seem very creative, just from the titles. I wanted to pick out three that I felt would be personally intriguing to me; something I’d like to read for pleasure and not just because I have to for an assignment. I think this class gives us a lot of leeway to make the course our own personal experience and I'm going to take full advantage of that!


The first storybook that caught my eye was "The Brother's Grimm" (You can view the storybook, here). I remember doing a project in a theater appreciation class that I used a Brother's Grimm story for and I really enjoyed the story, so the title was familiar to me. So, when I saw this one, I was intrigued and wanted to check it out. I thought the title was a little vague but after reading the introduction, I think the title works. It would be difficult for the author to be more specific about the storybook in the title, since he/she used several different stories instead of one continuous storyline. The author did a terrific job of encouraging interest in the storybook through the introduction. I really love the idea of bringing in surprise characters from other well known stories to add some mystery to the tales. Honestly, I just like the idea of the storybook presented in this one more than any particular style used in the intro. The overall physical layout of this one is very plain in my opinion. I think I would like to use a little more creativity in the physical design of my storybook. I do however like how the stories are in a straight forward list off to the side. It is obvious which one was intended to be below the intro, which is below that, and so on. I liked the picture below for one of the stories because I feel like the artist was very creative with the expressions on the animals' faces and how he / she showed that the goats were shocked and / or afraid and trying to get away from the wolf.




(The wolf and the seven young kids, novatale)

Another one that caught my eye was "Alice's Journey...Through social media?" (You can view the storybook, here). I never really read the stories, but I'm a big fan of the Alice movies, so the title was familiar to me. I really like how this storybook is more modern than most tales you will find out there. I think the title was very fitting for the storybook. As I read the introduction, it was exactly what I was expecting from the title. I really love the creativity put into this one. The white rabbit's social media post was hilarious to me.


(The rabbit's rude post; web source, simitator)

I enjoyed how the story is told from a first person point of view, rather than the typical 3rd person style of writing used in many fairytales. I also like the brightness of the page itself on this one. I think the writing style throughout this storybook is a bit juvenile but I don't think that's a bad thing. Alice is supposed to be a young girl and I think her story would be told in this way, rather than a more mature fashion. I think the page is well organized and it is very easy to navigate. I really like how this storybook was a continuous story with the same characters and I think I would likely do something similar for my storybook.


Finally, although the title wasn't familiar to me, "Mermaid-- CSI" (You can view the storybook, here) caught my attention. When I was a child, I loved the Little Mermaid. It was one of my favorite shows and I have always really liked the idea of mermaids. I'm also working towards a career in CSI, so when I saw this title I thought "I have to check this out!" I'm not sure what, if any, story this is based off of because I can't recall reading anything of the sort before, but I really love the story line. I think the title could have been reworded a bit, because when I read it I thought the storyline was going to be about a mermaid CSI and the story would mainly be an underwater tale. The introduction did a very good job of grabbing my attention and making me want to read more. I would have liked to see a little more creativity in the page design itself. I'm not fond of the plain, one or two colored pages like this one. I really like the idea of using more intricate designs. Overall though, the page is well organized and easy to navigate, so that's a plus!