February 2, 1994

The following is another story I wrote when I was five:

Once upon a time, there was three little "wolfs". They were real nice. Then they saw their friends, the pigs. Then the daddy wolf came out. Then the mama wolf came. Then the papa pig came. Then the mama one did. Then the friendly wolf came out. And then a bull came walking towards them and it was a nice bull. He came up to them and he licked them. Then another wolf came. And then the next wolf came. Then a pig came. Then a friendly bull came because we do have one at our ranch. Other wolf came and petted him.

The end.

When I was younger I enjoyed going out to our ranch with my dad and brother. We would feed and pet the cows. They would come up one by one and eat out of your hand; when they do this they end up licking you. There were a few bulls that you could walk up to and pet, I think this is why I wrote this story.

Study Guide for THe Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald

• 3 levels that are visible in the text
• The underworld-the goblins
• The goblins started off as human beings
• This is a spiritual underworld full of darkness and evil
• The goblins reject the light
• They have a government
• Theory of devolution- goblins rejecting the light makes them less human
• Evil is easily recognizable
• The real world
• World we recognize as daily life
• The heavenly world
• Mainly present in the grandmother’s attic
• Wise woman figure is a spiritual representative
• Lives apart from the rest of the characters
• Attic-place of light
• Represents safety and love
• Maze of light- the moon is used as a guide
• The fire of roses- the roses are not consumed by the flames
• Not everyone can see the grandmothers lamp

Roald Dahl cont.

The following information about Roald Dahl comes from the website stated below:
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rdahl.htm

In the crash Dahl had fractured his skull, and said later: "You do get bits of magic from enormous bumps on the head." While he was recovering from his wounds, Dahl had strange dreams, which inspired his first short stories.
The only stageplay Dahl ever wrote, THE HONEYS, failed in New York in 1955. After showing little inclination towards children's literature, Dahl published JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH (1961). It was first published in the United States, but it took six years before Dahl found a published in Britain. James and the Giant Peach was followed by the highly popular tale CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1964), which has inspired two film adaptations. The story dealt with one small boy's search for the ultimate prize in fierce competition with other, highly unpleasant children, many of whom come to sticky ends as a result of their greediness. It presented the central theme in Dahl's fiction for young readers: virtue is rewarded, vice is punished. In the end the fabulous chocolate factory is given to Charlie, the kind, impoverished boy. THE WITCHES (1983) won the Whitbread Children's Book Award in 1983. The judges described the book as "deliciously disgusting". Later Felicity Dahl collected her husband's culinary "delights", such as "Bird Pie", "Hot Frogs", and "Lickable Wallpaper" in Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes (1994).

Study Guide for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Chapters 1-6

• Identity is a major theme that Alice faces
• There are three major types of identity:
• Physical: size changes
• There are 8 major size changes in the first six chapters
  
• we see a fractured/split personality of Alice through these changes
• Internal: knowledge/way of thinking
• Alice tries to recite things she knows to see if she is still the same person; nothing is correct when she does this
• Alternative Perspective: views of other characters
• the White Rabbit calls Alice Mary Ann, which translates to mean a servant girl
• the Caterpillar asks her "Who are you?"; Alice doesn't know the answer to this question
• the Pigeon calls her a serpent because of her long "serpent" like neck
• the Cheshire Cat calls her mad
• Alice becomes able to control her size changers in chapter 5 with the mushroom
  

April 11, 1994

The following is another story I wrote when I was five.

Once upon a time, there was three pigs, three wolves. They were nice. The pigs thought the wolves were not their friends. The pigs found out they were their friends. The end.

I believe the three pigs could be considered my brother, our friends, and I. The wolves could represent a few of the neighbors that we were not as close to as the rest. Growing up my brother and I were very close to the other kids that lived in our neighborhood. We were always together getting into some sort of trouble, or what we considered trouble. I think this story is talking about some of the kids that lived on my street that would never play with us, so we thought they didn't like us. Eventually they joined us, every once in a while, and we learned that they thought we didn't like them either. We all then realized that we were friends and hung out more often.

More Background Information on Roald Dahl

The following information about Roald Dahl is taken from the following cite: http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rdahl.htm

"Parents and schoolteachers are the enemy," Dahl once said. "The adult is the enemy of the child because of the awful process of civilizing this thing that when it is born is an animal with no manners, no moral sense at all." In WITCHES (1973) behind the mask of a beautiful woman is an ugly witch, and in MATILDA (1988) Miss Turnbull throws children out of windows. Both parents are eaten in JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH (1961), but the real enemies of the hero of the story, a little boy, are two aunts.
At eighteen, instead of entering university, Dahl joined an expedition to Newfoundland. Returning to England he took a job with Shell, working in London (1933-37) and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (1937-39). During World War II he served in the Royal Air Forces in Libya, Greece, and Syria. He was shot down in Libya, wounded in Syria, and then posted to Washington as an assistant air attaché to British Security (1942-43). In 1943 he was a wing commander and worked until 1945 for British Security Co-ordination in North America.

January 27, 1994

This is another story i wrote when I was five.

Once upon a time there was a big bad wolf. He lived behind the bowling alley. Then there was a brother pig. Then there was a sister pig. Then there was a daddy wolf. then there was a mama wolf. Then they played across the fence.

When I was younger I had quite the imagination. I thought there was a "big bad wolf" that lived behind the bowling alley. There were always cats rustling in the bushes; so this is where the "big bad wolf" came from. The brother pig is my brother and the sister pig is me. I am not sure who the daddy and mama wolf are; they may be my parents. I was at the day care that was next to the bowling alley when the pigs are playing across the fence with the wolves. I'm not sure why they are doing this since we never played with anyone that was across the fence. It may be that my brother and I were playing with my parents outside in the yard.