Reading Diary A: Filipino Popular Tales

My favorite stories from the Filipino Popular Tales unit by Dean Fansler are:

Three Brothers of Fortune. Three brothers and a young woman are the main characters. The story started interestingly and it finished interestingly. Started interestingly as I can relate to them not wanting to study ;) The story gave magic powers to the brothers. I really like magic stories. I might use this to add magic to my story. It also gave a great ending for the brother who seemed like he received the worst magic power.

The Devil and the Guachinango. This was a great story. It was a little longer than the others, but it was interesting throughout. The devil and a man are the main characters. A woman and her daughter are the other characters. The story involved the woman and her daughter at first. Then it involved the man. It transitioned from the woman and her daughter to the man and the devil beautifully. There was lots of settings in the story, each described through the actions of the characters. I liked how the daughter backed out when the real devil came after she was saying she would rather marry the devil than some guy. 

Cochinango. This was another great story. It sort of reminded of situations where the underdogs sometimes win. That's exactly what happened in the story. A poor man married the princess. He was helped by God himself. Involving God made the story more interesting as it seemed like he was chosen to do great things by God himself. One way he was helped was through a magic buyo, a Filipino term of betel. We used to chew betel in my home country. My family still does sometime. So that was a nice connection.

Betel picture provided in the Cochinango story.