Tom Roberts (2)

Three Billy Goats Gruff is a favorite folktale from Norway complete with talking goats and an ugly troll. This particular book is adapted by Tom Roberts and illustrated by David Jorgensen. The pictures are all set on a white background and the text is black. The realistic pictures of the three goats, as well as the troll, are soft, muted colors and each two page spread has one full-page picture with no text. All three goats desire to graze on the clover fields across the bridge, but know they must take on the troll to cross the bridge. The youngest billy goat decides to attempt to cross, and does so successfully saying his older, bigger brother will be along soon and would make a much better meal than he would. This is repeated with the middle billy goat, who tells the troll his older brother will be more satisfying than he. Finally, the oldest, largest billy goat clomps across the bridge and is stopped by the troll. When threatened by the troll the largest billy goat takes action. The angry troll’s greed for a bigger meal ends him in the river, never to be seen again. The less is more approach on the text does not leave the reader disappointed or feeling like details are left out.… (more)