Carl Colshorn

I noticed that the author in relation to the of the authors' styles of writing enjoyed using whimsical language. This gave a glimpse into the author's sense of humor. The author tended to use conversational language in his style of writing. The storyline is told in a very informal way that reminds the reader of a time when someone told them a story when they were young. For example, on the first page of the story, the author began a sentence with the word "but". Students reading this book may think that it is acceptable to begin a sentence with the word "but" because they read this book. The author alluded to the themes of starvation and disparity that was once prevalent in the tales of the medieval Europe. Another thing that I noticed about the art of this book was that with each turn of the page the illustrations became stranger and stranger. When something magical was about to occur, small animals would appear in the foreground of the illustrations.This allowed reader to subconsciously become ready for something exciting to occur. Finally, I summarized that this book emphasized the need for bigger and better things. The old woman and the young girl want finer things. In order to marry a noble, the old woman in the story tells the young girl to lie in several situations . There is never a true consequence for lying in the story. This may cause young readers to have a skewed sense of morality.… (más)

Originally collected by Carl and Theodor Colshorn in 1854, in their Märchen und Sagen aus Hannover ("Fairy-Tales and Legends of Hanover"), this German folktale follows the story of a beautiful young miller's daughter, who - following her quarreling parents into the forest - eventually finds herself living in a castle, and engaged to a prince.

Translated by the prolific Anthea Bell, the narrative of The Porridge Pot is rather uneven, and the heroine's transformation feels almost random. I'm happy to read a tale from the Colshorn brothers, as I don't think I've ever seen another one translated, but I wouldn't list this amongst my favorites, when it comes to folk and fairy-tale retellings. Still, Claudia Carls' mixed media illustrations - with their use of claymation figures and painted backdrops - were quite interesting, and there was a kind of madcap humor here. Hopefully, more Colshorn tales will appear in English, and then I can get a sense of how this individual story fits into their larger body of work!… (más)