Storybook Favorites

 Storybook Favorites

For this assignment, I chose three storybook stories! I chose Ghost Stories of OU, Friends of Oz, and Stories from the Wizarding World. I am excited to share my thoughts with y'all!

Ghost Stories of OU. I chose this storybook because this topic of OU ghost stories brought me back to my freshman year. When I was a freshman, I took advantage of all OU had to offer for incoming students to get to know campus. This led me to partaking in a ghost tour at 11pm at night with my roommate and we heard a few of the same stories this storybook told. Plus I love anything haunted related so the title immediately grabbed my attention!

    After reading the introduction, I had a clear understanding of what I was supposed to learn from this storybook. I was informed I would learn about A Strange Day in Holmberg, A tragedy in Cate Center, A night at the Old Tri-Delt House, and Reporting from Bizzell. I really enjoyed the creative writing style the student used to describe these ghost stories and make them enticing to read. I do have to say after reading through each story, the introduction was a little misleading by saying the stories would include journal entries and newspaper clippings. I didn't find any of those things in any of the stories, but I think the student did a great job putting a creative twist on each classic ghost story.

    As for the design, I like how there was one tab to click and all the stories were clickable in the tab! It was very organized and easy to find each story. The titles of each story were clearly marked as well. I also enjoyed the simple layout with the white text against a stark colored background to fit the theme of ghosts and haunting. The pictures used in each story provided great imagery to where the haunting occurred on campus as well!

(Holmberg Hall at the University of Oklahoma: Wikipedia)

Friends of Oz. I chose this story because as a child, I loved the classic film, The Wizard of Oz. As a little girl, I fell in love with Dorthy and her powder blue gingham dress, her red sparkly shoes, and of course her adorable little dog Toto. Plus she had a great gang of friends, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Lion to help her along the yellow brick road to find her way back to Kansas. Once I saw this related story, I knew I had to get my hands on it and start reading!

    I first started with reading the introduction and I was pleasantly surprised and humored to read this twist on the classic story. I learned that the narrator, Crowder, was the first pre-med scarecrow to attend the University of Oz. He was excited to finally meet his roommates and become great friends with them since he was used to scaring people away and didn't have any close friends. When he walked into his dorm in Emerald Hall, he met his roommates Timmy, a tin man, and Lionel, a lion. I really liked how this student took this spin on the story and made it applicable to college students. I also like how the student is telling the story from the scarecrow's point of view versus the traditional Dorthy.

    As for the layout, I really enjoyed how each story was told from the perspective of the character and how they experienced that particular night at the party. This inspired me to think of classic stories and possibly retell them from the non-traditional characters points of views. I also enjoyed the visual components as well as the included youtube links! It made the story interactive and fun!

(The Wizard of Oz 1939 Film: Wikipedia)

Stories from the Wizarding World. I chose this final story about the wizarding world of Harry Potter because I am a huge fan of the magical world J.K. Rowling has created. I grew up reading all the Harry Potter books and I have made several trips to the Universal Park to experience as close to the magic as humanly possible. Her stories make you want to become a wizard, so when I saw a storybook about this, I couldn't help my self. I had to check it out!

    The introduction revealed this storybook would consist of three stories. Story one was The Shrieking Shack: Lupin's Transformation, story two was The Forbidden Forest: The Forest Spirit, and the third and final story was the Department of Mysteries: Draco's Task. The student also shared that they he/she was working with frame tales to adapt the Harry Potter series into something new and exciting. I wish the introduction would have shared a little detail on what each story was going to be about, but that didn't deter me from wanting to learn more.

    For the layout, the stories were easily accessible from the introduction page through clickable links. I was able to read and navigate within the stories with no trouble at all. I loved the incorporated images taken from the novel versus uses images from the movies. It made the stories more realistic and believable. Additionally, I think the way the stories were written was done well. The transition between character dialogue was easily determined and the student used words/language applicable to the particular character speaking. Overall, I enjoyed this storybook very much!

(Harry Potter Logo: Wikipedia)