Margaret Read MacDonaldRezensionen

Independent Reading: (Age:5-8)
Awards: N/A

This has the old "To market, to market" rhyme in it. It's funny and a fab read-aloud. It kind of reminded me of the Shel Silverstein poem where the kid trades a quarter for two dimes, then the two dimes for three nickels, etc.

A sweet little retelling of a Hungarian folk-tale.

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The wonderfully colorful and expressive illustrations earn 4 stars, but the less-than-grammatical conversational style of the text dropped my overall rating to 3 stars. I appreciate the folk lore origins of the story; I just find it hard to read a story, especially out loud, that's written in such a different style from how I myself would speak.

The repeating verse throughout the book will get into kids' heads and have them chanting along with the story. They'll laugh at the rabbit's antics, especially when they realize what he's plotting.

Pickin' Peas would make a great read-aloud book for summer storytimes, especially if kids can get some hands-on experience picking peas themselves in a school, home, or library garden.

Note: I received a digital galley of this book through NetGalley.

This a folktale from Thailand. This story tells about a young girl who has been spoiled by her parents. They have given her the best of everything. When the young girls of the village are invited to a party Aree can’t decide which of her finest dresses, or beautiful jewelry to wear. She puts one dress on over another. The she puts all of her jewelry on. She thinks she will be the most beautiful girl there. She meets her friends outside. The hold their laughter in. As they walk along Aree can’t keep up and is left behind. Her friends come back for her twice. Both times when they try to help her she stops them because she doesn’t want her dresses messed up. She never makes it to the dance. The next morning her friends find her where she had sat down. She has no strength to move. They get her parents who realize and help her realize how wrong they were for giving her everything.

"There was once a woman who had no children. She prayed to Allah: 'I would love a child, even if it is nothing more than a cooking pot!' Willa! She had a child! And it was a little pot!"

But the pot is mischievous, and as soon as she's allowed to go to market by herself, she gets into trouble by stealing. In the end, she learns her lesson when she gets filled with goat poop. "Little Pot, I hope you've learned your lesson. You cannot take things that do not belong to you!"

A little on the long side, so good for PreK-2nd grade.

I enjoy reading folktales from different cultures. This book shows a story from Panama that sounds sort of familiar to some of the stories I know from my culture. I enjoy comparing the tales I hear.

This book is about a little boy at his grandmothers house. He is going to bead and he hears noises when the room is dark. his grandmother keeps brining him animals to sleep with to help him not get scared.

traditional literature, folktale, crocodile, Zimbabwe, party

00011954

A small tugboat is built and learns his trade before going off on his first job. In the waters off of Alaska, he has to temporarily abandon his cargo in order to help out a larger tug that "lost power" during a storm.

This book is apparently based loosely on a real-life event (obviously the boats didn't talk in that scenario!). The message of never being too little to help is a good one for young readers.

However, I personally didn't really care for this book. I felt like despite the author's attempt for rhymes and etc., the cadence was off and did NOT make for a good readaloud. The story is quite slim and I didn't really feel any interest in; that being said, toddlers and preschoolers who love machinery and vehicles will probably enjoy it.

The illustrations remind me of older style Golden Books or the illustrations for some of Margaret Wise Brown's books.½

Young Aree’s parents have doted on her all her life. Now she has so many fine silk clothes and precious jewelry she can’t decide what to wear to the dance! So she puts on at least a dozen dresses, one on top of the other, and weighs down her neck and arms with too many bracelets, ring, and necklaces. After struggling for hours to even walk up the hill to the dance, Aree and her parents realize how her true beauty isn’t visible when she is spoiled with too many material things. I like that this story is simple, but the exaggerated quality makes this important lesson feel better than exciting to listen to and learn, rather than too didactic. The illustrations are gorgeous and fun.

This is a tale of a rabbit who is going up the mountain to visit his grandmother but along the way runs into some trouble. AS the rabbit is going up the mountain one predator after the next wants to eat him and each time he convinces them to let him go visit his grandma first so she can feed him. After he eats at his grandma he comes up with a plan to get down the mountain without getting eaten. He gets in a barrel and rolls down the mountain telling each animal that their is a fire so that they would run away and not eat him. He makes it home safety to his mom in the barrel. This story shows how their is always a solution in any situation you get in.

This is a wonderful tale about a rabbit that is off to see his grand mother. The little rabbit goes on an adventure to get to his grandmothers house and along the way he runs into a few different animals that want to eat him for lunch. He runs into a tiger, a lion, and a fox. He fools them into letting him go by saying that they do not want to eat a skinny rabbit, wait till he comes back from eating all the food that his grandmother will give so he will be nice and fat. Then he comes back rolling in the barrel telling each of the animals that there is a fire so they would leave him alone and he rolls all the way back down the mountain until he is home again.

Perfect..

Perfect for the little ones when you want to give encouraging words, letting them know that if they keep pushing, they can accomplish anything! (As I read on Instagram (paraphrasing), "You can do anything, not everything"). This was adorable. Not perfect but what is? It gets the point across for the babies.

In the beginning of this book, there is a note explaining where it came from. This is important to read to children before starting the story to give them a background and origin. In this one, it explains that this specific story has been elaborated through many tellings. It began in Sierra Leone, Africa. It is very important to the Limba people and Limba grandparents always tell this tale to their grandchildren and it passes down through generations. It begins by explaining how cats were usually clever and mice were usually foolish, but Mabela the mouse was clever because her father taught her to be. He always repeated to her to keep her eyes and ears open, and always look and listen. One day a cat came into the mice's village and told them they could be a part of the secret cat society and learn the secrets of the cat if they came to the cat's meeting place. They all foolishly followed each other to her secret meeting place, with the cat following behind. Mabela lead because she was the smallest. Each time they sang their chant, the cat would snatch one up and put it in her bag to eat. Mabela, remembering the wisdom her dad passed to her, caught on to the cat's plan and escaped. Finally, the cat got stuck in thorns and the mice were set free. In this tale, I believe it is more of a folklore story to teach a lesson. A factor that I caught on to for these types of folklore books, is that animals are mostly used to portray the story. I admire the illustrations in children's book, especially in folklore books. The text itself is great for children to expand creativity and imagination, but the illustration is very crucial to that as well. Being able to see it play out will give the tale or myth the full effect.

Pickin Peas is the beautiful retelling of folktale that originally appeared, according to MacDonald, in Southern Workman. This book is meant to be read aloud and acted out in a group setting. The last page gives actions, a tune to use if you want and some suggestions for acting out the song using characters.

A little girls plants peas and waits for them to be ready to pick. She sings as she picks the big peas. She leaves the small ones to get bigger. Rabbit comes along behind her singing his own tune and eats the peas she has left. She catches him and tells him she is going to keep him in a box until all the peas have been picked. Rabbit tricks her and escapes.

The illustrations are cute, but the story itself does not have much to it. It would be cute with young children singing and acting out the story.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and August House to read and review.

Surf War is based on a folktale from the Marshall Islands. The whale and sandpiper argue about whether there are more whales or sandpipers. They call all their sisters, brothers, and cousins to come. When they still cannot decide who has more, the whales decide they will eat up the island so the birds can't stay and the birds decide to drink up the water for the same reason. When the birds realize they are causing their food supply of small sea creatures to die they put the water back and the whales decide to put the land back as well. They now believe that their home- the ocean should be at peace. I love the quote from the story, "Such a silly thing to start a war." This book has such a great message of sharing, acceptance, co-operation as well as the ecological message about realizing the results of our actions. These are all great messages that depending upon the age of the child or children being read this story, many discussions could develop. The illustrations are vibrant, child friendly and attractive. As another reviewer said, "The idea that war comes from anger and isn't a solution is a great idea for a book targeting future generations.

I was provided a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Picture book. Another book about a poor man, but he is giving flowers to the ocian to thank the Dragon king. As thanks he is presented with a magic boy where as long as you feed him shrimp with vinegar and sugar will make all your wishes come true.However, after a while the man gets fed up with the boy and kicks him out of the castle, so as payback the boy makes everything he had given the man disappear and the man is left with nothing.

A great look into perseverance and never judging a book by it's cover. This would be a great way to start a conversation about how a child has experienced bias based on their appearance.

"Give up, Gecko" was a good book, except for the first few pages where all the animals were talking. It is too hard for the target audience to follow that many different animals at one time. The main point of the story is that if you never give up you will reach your goal. This shows when all the animals try to find the water adn then give up shortly after, but the Gecko does not.

The illustrator Sachiko Yoshikawa illustrated this story beautifully. By looking at the illustrations, a child can get an idea as to what is going on, without reading the story. Yoshikawa illustrated the snot-nosed boy with a different nose structure than the other characters in the story, and that's what makes the little boy stand out from the rest. On top of that, readers can see the shift in colors as the story progresses. The colors were more dull and gray when the flower seller was poor, whereas the colors were more vibrant and lively when the flower seller was rich and greedy. To me, the colors not only showed the way the flower seller lived, but it also signified his emotions. Dull when the man was sad, colorful when he was happy, and dull again when it was all taken away because he was ungrateful and full of greed.

Too many fairies is a cute book about fairies who come to help an old woman who is complaining about housework. The problem is that the fairies do all the housework, the house is clean, and then they tear the house apart and do it all again. The old woman seeks advice from the locals and the local said that she must never complain again. She must call all the fairies out of the house lock the door mess up the house and clean it herself. The fairies want to help, but the woman refuses to let them in. She sits in her quiet house that she cleaned herself and never complained again!