Week 7 Reading Diary: Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang)

For my reading diary this week I decided to focus on Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang). These Japanese fairy tales retold by Andrew Lang and the stories are translated into contemporary English. The two stories I have chosen are from two separate books. The Cat’s Elopement is from The Pink Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1897). The Two Frogs is from The Violet Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1901).

The Cat’s Elopement: This is a remarkable love story between two cats. A music playing master’s male cat named Gon and a neighbor woman’s female cat named Koma. However, neither of the owners would sell that cat to the other so that the two cats could be together. The only option they had was to run away together. The two were separated in a horrific way only to find themselves at a much later day. I really enjoyed this story because it reminded me of many past love stories I have heard and best of all it too found its happy ending.

The Two Frogs: I really liked this story because it is a special tale about how two tiny creatures somehow find each other is a large world. To me it seemed a little bit like destiny. They looked to the other frog for advise of the country they had hoped to visit. I think it was a very relatable story for the readers who are hoping to one day see more of the world.