Storybook Favorites

Hey there!

So, it is time to dive into some of my favorite projects from past students in Indian Epics. I am excited to share some awesome ideas for whoever is reading this and to keep tabs for myself.

Picture of Me Digging Thorough All These Projects, by Creative Commons

Project I: Environment in the World of Indian Epics

First off, when you open the home page you are treated with a pretty cool layout. I do not know if I would be interested doing something like this, but it is a cool design I have never seen before. All of the tabs are visible horizontally on top of one another. It is visually cool and pretty handy for navigation.

The introduction is AWESOME. I love how the author started off with a question. It basically said: do humans exist to nurture Earth, or does Earth exist to nurture humans. The author then dives into our impact on the Earth and why it is important we take care of our mother Earth. A couple of my favorite lines are:

• This storybook should inspire you to view nature itself as a story.

• For me, nature is often a feeling, in which I am at peace with the natural world in the order that it was created.

As for the stories themselves, they were pretty good. I like how videos were included and the stories really aligned with the overall theme. I also loved how the author really tied in these stories to relevant issues the world faces today. 

Project II: When Trees Talk

In comparison to the first project, this one has an extremely simple home page. I do like how there is a sentence explaining what this project is about. I think somewhere in between these two projects would be a very efficient and helpful layout. Possibly including a pre-introduction and images to expose the reader to the material before diving in. 

The introduction on this project really sold me on the whole project. The introduction not only captured my attention, but it was extremely informational. It went into why trees in India are significant, and what each of the main trees signify. I appreciated how short and to the point it was as well. 

In the stories themselves, I love how the tree is the narrator. I think this is a great twist that benefits the author's overall goal of the project. The project is set up as different stories that do not directly tie into one another, but I think it works really well organized like this. I also love how much research went into each story. Instead of going off one story and retelling it, the author got information from several sources. This created a more complete personality of the characters and narrators, along with more depth in the writing. 

Project III: Celestial Weapons in the Star Wars Universe

Alrighty everyone, THIS IS THE BEST PROJECT EVER. Okay....so I just watched ALL of the Star Wars movies this past month for the first time. If you have ever seen them you know how awesome they are, so I am so happy that is the theme for this project. Literally the introduction includes the theme song to be played while you read it. BEST STORY EVER.

Okay so now that you know I really like this story.... let's dive in. The introduction is very well set up to explain each individual story and its significance to the overall storyline. It also pairs well with the movies themselves which is really cleaver in my opinion. It takes away some of the pressures of developing a character from scratch. You have a bunch of characters with a set backstory and personality you as an author do not need to explain.

As for the stories, the author really nailed it. The author kept the language pretty identical to the language of each character in the movies. I think it was cleaver to include music with each page too. It was pretty cool and helped me stay engaged. If my project would benefit from music, I will have to remember to include it. Overall, this story was awesome in every way possible. If you are going to read one (and like Star Wars) read this one!