In the year 2245, there lives a king named Yon-San. He lives on the moon. Whenever he wants someone to come to his space tower, he doesn’t ask. He just transports the person to the moon on light waves. All the people in the kingdom hope that the king will take them to the moon. Everyone wants to go live in Yon-San’s space tower!

• 1. Describe the time and place and what the people think.

• 2. Compare the different settings in these two versions of “The Clever Woman.”

• 3. With a partner, predict how the plot of the second story will be different from the plot of the first story.

Along time ago in a faraway place, all the good stories of the world were kept away from the people. Only the gods knew the stories. Anansi, a clever spider, knew that stories were good for people. He wanted to find a way to get the stories from the gods. So Anansi built a spider web that reached up to the gods. He climbed up the web and asked them to give him the stories.

The gods didn’t like to share, so they gave Anansi a test. If Anansi caught a jaguar, a stinging hornet, and a falcon, they would give him the stories for the people. The gods thought Anansi wouldn’t be able to catch these very dangerous animals. But Anansi was smart. He tricked the three animals and brought them to the gods. The gods were surprised and angry. But they were fair gods, so they gave him their stories to share with the people of the world.

• 1. What is the setting?

• 2. Who are the characters, and what are they like?

• 3. What is the conflict?

• 4. How does the main character resolve the conflict?

• 5. How would the plot be different if Anansi was a robot and the setting was in the future?