Throughout my life I did not read many classic fairy tales. I've read oodles of adaptations, watched films, and maybe read one or two fairy tales repeatedly, but I was not well read in a variety of them, specifically non-Western.
With this background, reading such a large amount of fairy tales at once was troubling. I wasn't used to the vague non-descriptive format and had trouble pushing through the material. I liked the stories overall, and after gaining some help from class discussions, I was able to re-read the stories and have a better understanding of them and enjoy them more.
My favorites were probably the tales from Kenya. Dr. Ochieng had a wonderful storytelling voice, not to mention the stories themselves were interesting, captivating and easy to understand. They were also very new to me, which made them more exciting and new, like I was discovering the unfamiliar (even though the stories employed the same techniques, morals, and plot devices).
The Hollow Kingdom was one of my favorite books as a child. I must've read it over 4 times. I consider it as an adaptation of Cinderella.
I feel like I spent more time analyzing other stories and films that I read for other classes (or pleasure) than this class's required fairy tales. I liked the tales and was excited to apply what I learned to other materials. I wish I had spent more time reviewing our fairy tales multiple times, but I feel confident in my knowledge of them from our discussions over the semester.
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