Week 7 Reading Diary: Filipino Popular Tales

This week I read Filipino Popular Tales from Dean Fansler's monumental Filipino Popular Tales, published in 1921. My favorite story from the first half of the reading was The Three Friends: the Monkey, the Dog, and the Carabao. It immediately caught my eye because my two best friends and I think that three is the perfect number for a balanced friendship. I also really like stories that are told in steps. Like first one thing happens with one character, then the next day another character tries the same thing and doesn't succeed either and so on.

This story started out like that, but then the ending was totally different. So I think if I was going to retell this story I would want to keep it going step by step until the final character tried something and succeeded. I also like that this story is all about cooking. I like to cook, but I think cooking is even more fun when I get to do it with my friends!

I really liked the part of the story where the three of the animal friends work together and the story goes "there is strength in unity." That's an important theme, even more so when it comes to friendship. This would be a really fun storytelling post if I kept some of the main characters and changed up the plot a bit.

boa constrictor