Storybook Favorites

The first Storybook that I looked into was written by an Italian-American named Marco. He grew up in the city of Arezzo, where his “Nonna” would tell him and his siblings certain Italian fairy tales, which he cites are mainly about l’amore, the Italian word for love. His reasoning for re-writing these stories are so he can tell them to his daughter, Bella, who he wants to teach/immerse in his Italian heritage. Overall, the layout of this website is fairly decent, with the buttons/page format being cohesive and easy to navigate around. I would say that the color scheme leaves something to be desired, with a tan background alongside orange/black text. The introduction gives a good idea of not only why Marco has an interest in Italian love-stories, but also explains the heritage/meaning behind them which piqued my interest heavily.

The next Storybook project that I looked at was called “The Greatest Trickster” which had 4 short stories that involved a fox, a rabbit, and a tanuki, each told from the perspective of Reynard the Fox. There wasn’t an introduction describing the purpose/reason behind the short stories, so I was somewhat confused as to what area of folklore these were drawn from. His layout of the stories, however, was much cleaner and better looking than Marco’s website. A modern visual approach to dealing with “ye-olde” short stories, in my opinion, helps alleviate some of the trepidation some might have about reading them. The stories were told in a cohesive and well-written manner that was easy to follow.

The final Storybook project dealt with a modern retelling of the poem-epic, “Dante’s Inferno”. The introduction did a great job of introducing what Dante’s Inferno was, including highlighting three distinct parts (inferno, purgatory, and paradise) that directly related to the stories that the student would be telling later on. Their website was the same one used in “The Greatest Trickster”, which is modern and clean looking – something I highly approve of. Dante’s Inferno is something I have dealt with before, making the modern retelling of it extremely interesting to me – seeing how it would play out in a different, newer setting shows truly how certain stories can transcend time, playing out in a multitude of different contexts, with the same meaning carried on through.

Portrait of Dante Alighieri in 1321, painted by Sandro Botticelli