After many years of spending their life like that, day in and day out, some of the animals found themselves beginning to have hope for change, especially those animals that were both small and weak. The animals wanted peace, and they wanted to be able to walk about the jungle without having to fear their enemies. It didn’t take long for the whispers of peace to travel through the jungle, and very soon it was a single wish that almost all of the animals in the jungle collectively possessed. Peace was in their mind and nothing would stop them from making it a reality. They were just not sure how to make it happen. All of the different types of animals in the jungle were in disagreement on how best to gain peace, and no one was stepping up.
A few weeks of disagreements went by and there had still been no change, and the animals were still fighting amongst each other. Up until now there had only been hopeful rumors of change. Finally, the monkeys decided to take charge and they called a meeting in the center of the jungle. They requested to have one representative from each type of animal attend the meeting. The meeting took place the following day. All of the animals sat in a circle with the monkeys in the middle. Each animal sent to the meeting was the most respected and wisest of its kind, and they were all confused about what they were doing there because there had never been an organized meeting in the jungle before.
The monkeys opened the meeting by explaining that this group was the elite of the jungle and would now be known as the council. They made it clear that this was how they proposed that the council made the decisions for the jungle from now on because it was the only way to have a representative from everyone in the jungle. Everyone else agreed unanimously. However, they still needed a king among the council, and everyone had an opinion about who this leader would be.
A few weeks of disagreements went by and there had still been no change, and the animals were still fighting amongst each other. Up until now there had only been hopeful rumors of change. Finally, the monkeys decided to take charge and they called a meeting in the center of the jungle. They requested to have one representative from each type of animal attend the meeting. The meeting took place the following day. All of the animals sat in a circle with the monkeys in the middle. Each animal sent to the meeting was the most respected and wisest of its kind, and they were all confused about what they were doing there because there had never been an organized meeting in the jungle before.
The monkeys opened the meeting by explaining that this group was the elite of the jungle and would now be known as the council. They made it clear that this was how they proposed that the council made the decisions for the jungle from now on because it was the only way to have a representative from everyone in the jungle. Everyone else agreed unanimously. However, they still needed a king among the council, and everyone had an opinion about who this leader would be.
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After a lot of disagreements, the council settled on three nominations. In the running for the king was the head monkey, the tiger, and the turtle. The monkey was an option because some of the animals thought the monkeys were smart enough to come up with the idea of the council, so they should be able to lead. The tiger was nominated because he was strong and would intimidate against enemies or thoughts of rebellion or attack. Finally, the turtle was nominated because he was one of the oldest in the jungle therefore he was the wisest and the most experienced.
The decision was set to a vote. All of the animals raised their paw for the animal they thought was best fit to lead. It was a quiet vote without too much discussion because there was a winner by a large majority. By the end of the vote they had a king. King Tiger made his debut as the leader and everyone finally saw peace in the future.
Bibliography: This story is based on the story, The Tiger and the Monkeys. This story is part of the Khasi Folktales unit. Story source: Folk-Tales of the Khasis by Mrs. K. U. Rafy (1920).
I love that you decided to write a prequel since you thought the story was great already and didn't need any changing! I haven't written a prequel yet but think I should try it now! I like the idea of being creative and coming up with a whole new story that is mine. I love animal stories, especially ones with monkeys because I think they are such a funny animal. I really liked your prequel; great job!
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning I was a little confused when you said, "These fights were usually solved through fights." I wonder if you could replace one of these words? In my mind I pictured them already fighting, then just continuing to fight.
ReplyDeleteI liked how eventually the animals all came together because they were tired of fighting and wanted to make a change. The council was a great idea. It was also nice that you mentioned why the three nominations where given.
I wonder how the why the decided to easily (without much argument) that the tiger should be king. I think it could be interesting if you made them go through tests or challenges of some sort. To compete and prove they should be king.
For me I struggle the most with the introduction so I understand you need to be really creative when writing a prequel. You did a great job!
Hi Kristine! I really enjoyed your prequel. I think that was a great idea for a story that I definitely wouldn't have thought of.
ReplyDeleteI also liked that you mentioned the animals reasoning for choosing the council member and then further for choosing the three king nominations.
Context is so important to make our stories well rounded and I think you did a really great of of explaining the "why" for everything throughout your story.
While I was 99 percent sure the tiger would be the chosen king, I found myself still hoping that the turtle would get to be the king. After all, he is the wisest of them all.
I would suggest adding a few more visual details, that way we as the readers can have a really exact picture in our minds when reading your story.
Good job overall, I'll definitely be checking back in to read more of your work!
I liked that this was a prequel story. I might consider doing this too. It was interested how the council was formed and I liked that they were comprised of each of their strengths that differ greatly from each other. I think that's what makes a good team. You don't want one really strong feature in the group but multiple and different features.
ReplyDeleteHey Kristine! I think that it was a great idea to write a prequel for a story. And it is about animals, which is always an immediate attention grabber for me! I think that you did a good job of identifying why the King Tiger was necessary and how he was the one selected. However, I do think a little more detail about the forest after the vote could have been added to give readers a taste of King Tiger at work! I also think that a picture of a majestic tiger at the end could add a really cool effect to your story. It would help the readers see visually why the tiger was selected to be king. I haven’t read the story you based this on, but you did a great job of getting me interested in reading it! Can’t wait to come back and read more of your work!
ReplyDeleteHi Kristine! I really liked that you chose to do a backstory to how the Tiger became king of the jungle. It was very interesting, and something that I had never thought about. It is commonly heard that there is a king of the jungle, but no one really ever explains why this is so. I think it was interesting that the monkeys were actually the ones to initiate a council, and then that even though they initiated it they were not voted the most superior species. It is also interesting that since the species were all fighting, that they would agree to come together. I guess the peace was more important to them than their previous arguments were. I think it would have been cool if a fight had broken out at the council, and whichever species could fix the problem would have been deemed fit to be king. Overall, I really enjoyed reading your story! Good work!
ReplyDeleteKristine, I really like the fact that you made a prequel to the story you read. Even in the author's note you wrote how you saw the sequel going, so maybe we will see that in the future? I've yet to see someone in this class write a prequel to something they have read, but I liked it! I think it was very creative, and I agree that it substantiated claims made in the original story, so it fit perfectly. It's interesting that you made the monkeys the ones to initiate the council, but then the tiger was elected king. I guess it all ties together in the first story and makes sense, since the monkeys tried to trick the tiger and attack him. It sounds like the monkeys are very smart and possibly could rule as the council over the forest in the sequel, instead of having a dictatorship? Just a thought. Overall, I think you did a really good job, and found yet another way to write a creative re-telling! Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteGreat job, Kristine. You did a wonderful job at writing a whole new story based on the reading that you did for an original story. I just happened to notice how creative you are. I read some of your stories for your portfolio and I noticed that you wrote many stories that were your own based on your original readings. I think they were all great. I have never thought how they decided the tiger as a king of the jungle. I always thought a tiger is a king of the jungle but never asked why a tiger was the king of the jungle. You did a great job at asking a question based on your reading and you did a great job generating a story based on your own imagination and how you felt over the original story. You did a great job at creating a story which would probably remind me of this story if someone says 'a tiger is a king of the jungle'. Once again, great job!
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