Skip to main content

CHARACTER COUNTS: The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Image
By


The Three Billy Goats Gruff 
By Jerry Pinkney
Little, Brown and Company, 2017. Picture Book

This is a retelling of the classic tale of “The Three Billy Goats Gruff.” Similar to every other version, there is a green valley across a river. The three billy goats decide that they would like to cross to where the green grass is to eat. Only, the way to get to the other side is to cross a bridge where a troll lives. This troll likes to eat animals. And like every other version the littlest billy goat tricks the troll into waiting for the next billy goat. Then the middle billy goat tricks the troll into waiting for the next billy goat. And of course the last billy goat is big enough to take care of the troll.

The one thing that is different about this story (other than the brilliant illustrations that Pinkney created) is that the troll isn’t just butted away from the story—readers will see him meet a similar fate when a giant fish tries to eat him while in the river. However, with the troll’s similar near fate, the troll has a change of heart (which readers can see on the final pages and last endpapers). In the Artist’s Note Pinkney explains why he decided to make this choice to improve the troll's character. All in all this is another great addition to the classic stories retold genre. And as an added bonus Pinkney dedicates the book to all his “fellow Capricorns”, which is a nice and humorous touch. Well done, Pinkney! Well done.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stand Tall by Joan Bauer

By DeeDee
Stand Tall By Siena Siegel by Joan Bauer Putnam, 2002, 182 pgs Realistic Fiction Tree is 12 years old and over 6 feet tall. That would be great if he were a basketball player, but he is not. Dealing with his unusual size is not Tree's only challenge. Tree's parents have recently gone through a divorce, and his grandfather has had his leg amputated as the result of an old Vietnam War injury. The strength of this book is the characterizations. All of the main characters are dimensional and sympathetic. Bauer sets the characters in real and often funny family situations. Best of all is the character of Tree. He is boy with a heart to match his stature. This is a great book for boys or girls ages 9-12, as a read aloud or for individual reading. This book could also be a good Rx book for children whose families are going through divorce, or for anyone who feels like they don't fit in.
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Cincinnati Lee, Curse Breaker

By
  Cincinnati Lee, Curse Breaker By Heidi Heilig New York: Greenwillow Books, 2025. Fiction. 291 pages. Thanks to Cincinnati Lee's no good, dirty rotten, artifact stealing great great great grandfather, Cincinnati's family is now cursed and Cincinnati feels like it's up to her to break the curse. Which involves trying to steal the artifacts back from museums that her grandfather robbed from graves and archeological sites around the world and return them to their countries of origin. But when Cincinnati's first artifact stealing mission goes awry, she decides it might be more effective to steal an all-powerful artifact herself that she can use to break the curse - The Spear of Destiny. Unfortunately her race for the spear will pit her against art smugglers and thieves intent on finding the ancient artifact themselves. If you are looking for an Indiana Jones read-alike, this is the perfect for you! Heavy on the adventure with similar levels of mysticism to those seen in th...
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