Skip to main content

The Greedy Sparrow: an Armenian Tale

By


The Greedy Sparrow: an Armenian Tale
retold by Lucine Kasbarian; illustrated by Maria Zaikina
Marshall Cavendish, 2011. Unpaged. Picture book.

The greedy sparrow. What a jerk. After he gets a thorn in his foot he sees a woman baking bread and asks her to pull it out. "With pleasure," she says, pulls out the thorn, throws it in the fire, and the sparrow goes on his way. Soon the sparrow is back, demanding his thorn. When the woman can't produce it, he demands bread. This is only the first outrage in the sparrow's crimes and misdemeanors. After a series of tricks and extortions, the sparrow has managed to trade up to a lute which he plucks as he sings a song of his exploits: "In place of a thorn, I got some bread. In place of some bread, I got a sheep . . . "and so on. But as he rocks out on a tree limb proclaiming his smarts, he slips, drops his lute, and gets a thorn in his foot. Too bad, so sad, we're glad. Great pictures and a fun, cautionary tale.
Labels:

Comments

Marsha Judkins said…
This review made me laugh. Thanks!
July 29, 2011 at 9:15 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The New Girl

By
The New Girl By Cassandra Calin New York: Graphix, 2024. Comic. 261 pages. 12-year-old Lia and her family have just moved from Romania to Montreal, and she's doing her best to keep up with the changes. But, she's homesick. She misses the rest of her family, her friends, and her favorite Romanian treats. She doesn't speak French and her English is shaky, which makes it hard to make friends, even in her international immersion class. And she's dealing with super painful menstrual cramps every month. But before long, Lia starts to hit her stride. She befriends the other bilingual girls in her class, she gets a spot as the artist for her school's magazine, and even has a new crush -- Julien. Though she may be the new girl, Lia is starting to fit in. This slice of life graphic novel is an adorable choice for middle grade readers and young teens. Lia is a likable protagonist and readers will have little difficulty relating to her adjustment to school. The text speaks to a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Factory

By
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more

Five Favorite Aunt and Uncle Books

By
  Aunt and Uncle Day I discovered a new holiday. Apparently, July 26th is National Aunt and Uncle Day! In order to celebrate this day, I am sharing my five favorite middle grade books that have stellar aunts and uncles. Now, due to a lot of various circumstances, these books have a lot of hard things (death of a parent, parental neglect, and one case of good parents sending their child off to visit an uncle during summer vacation). So, be aware that these titles not only showcase some amazing aunts and uncles, but they also open the door to talk about hard topics.  Closer to Nowhere  By Ellen Hopkins  Putnam’s Sons, 2020.  This book is actually told from two different points of view—Hannah and Cal’s; however, the two protagonists are cousins. Cal comes to live with Hannah’s family and Hannah’s mom—Cal’s aunt—becomes Cal’s support and champion. Cal’s mom died and his dad is in prison. Cal is in a family foster care situation and doesn’t feel like he belongs. Hann...
Post a Comment
Read more