Tom Roberts (2)

Retelling: Little red was sent to her granny's house across a wood and told never to stray from the path. She met a wolf who persuaded her to do it anyway and the consequences were dire.

Thoughts and Feelings: One of these days granny is going to take a self defense class and wollop that ol' wolf right in the keester... until then, little red will just have to be devoured in elementary school classrooms over and over and over again.

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 show more 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. show less