Reading Diary B: Chinese Fairy Tales

The second half of the Chinese Fairy Tales unit was just as good as the first. I like that the stories aren't too long and that each one is different from the last in at least one major way. Some of the units with longer stories got to be a little burdensome towards the end of their respective unit, but with these stories, I'm entertained and don't get overwhelmed by the amount of material.

For some reason, the stories with the tiny characters in them are my favorite. The last story in the first half of the unit and the first story in the second half of the unit both have tiny people in them, and I think that's just precious. It reminds me of Gulliver's Travels. In particular, I like the plot for The Little Hunting Dog. The scholar being protected from the pesky insects by a super tiny dog is just so cute! I really like that the little army rode around and killed so many of the bugs for him and then also left behind a dog to protect him. Reading that story made me smile and say "aww" more than I could count.

Some of the stories didn't really make sense to me. For example, in The Talking Silver Foxes, the talking foxes are the antagonists, yet in the beginning they aren't portrayed as such. The story starts out on something completely different, namely what the villagers did when their children were sick. It was only after that part that the story about the foxes really started. I thought the story could have been better had the author either taken out some of the story or separated it into two different tales.

(Bay of Kiau Chau)