Reading Notes: The Wonderful Teakettle

 

Teakettle

Picture by pureedensalon

Source: Flickr

Wow, this was such a cute and somewhat odd story. I would never think to have a teakettle be a living thing, but imagination is key to any fairytale! This story took me back to my childhood days when I would watch Blues Clues, and there would a talking salt and pepper, or Dora the Explorer that had a talking backpack. There are so many things I could do with this story. I want to keep the teakettle, but instead of having it be a badger I would like for it to just be personified—meaning the teakettle would be a talking, moving object! I picture the teakettle to kind of be like the teapot in Beauty and the Beast! The new Beauty and the Beast with Emma Watson.

I feel like tea is a big tradition in the Japanese culture. I want to keep this theme alive in my own story. I want this teakettle to bring wealth and good health to a poor family in Japan in my story! I want my story to be creative by using a lot of unrealistic things like the teakettle being able to talk first, and then the chopsticks, and then the bowls!

The family in my story will struggle with starvation. The teakettle will be the hero in this story. Yes, the teakettle will be a boy! However, he will be a child. However, the family will keep this teakettle for generations and generations. The teakettle will represent struggle, but wealth in the smallest of things like tea. I think this would be a cute story to write that can relate to kids and adults! I think tradition is really important, so I want this to also be a lesson. I’m sure all of us have a little something from our past that we hold on to that is represented in an inanimate object, so hopefully this story can relate to all my readers.

Bibliography: Japanese Fairy Tales, "The Wonderful Teakettle" by Teresa Peirce Williston