The Gingerbread Man

The classic tale of the runaway Gingerbread Man, who escapes his hungry creators, as well as a string of others met upon the road, before his fateful encounter with a fox, is here retold by the marvelously talented Jim Aylesworth and Barbara McClintock, whose other projects include Goldilocks And The Three Bears, The Tale Of Tricky Fox, and (most recently) The Mitten. With a narrative just made for reading aloud, and delightful watercolor, ink and gouache illustrations, this is without a doubt my favorite retelling of this popular story.

Similar in content and style to a number of European tales also featuring runaway edibles - the Slavic Kolobok, retold as The Little Round Bun in Irina Zheleznova's Ukrainian Folk Tales; the Norwegian show more Pannekaken, found in Asbjørnsen and Moe's Norwegian Folktales; or the Scots tale, The Wee Bannock, collected by Joseph Jacobs in More English Fairy Tales - The Gingerbread Man is the American contribution to this tale-type, and although it appeared as late as 1875 (in a children's periodical), has become the definitive version for many readers in this country.

What child doesn't thrill to the insouciant Gingerbread Man's taunting rhyme: "Run! Run! / Fast as you can! / You can't catch me! / I'm the Gingerbread Man!"? Aylesworth's narrative has all the humor and fun of the original, while McClintock's art ably conveys the building excitement of the story, culminating in that foxy ending. Highly recommended to anyone who loves this tale in particular, or sing-songy folktales in general. show less

I'm really a sucker for the Barbara McClintock illustrations. They are gorgeously rendered. Everything her paintbrush touches turns to gold (see The Tale of Tricky Fox, The Mitten, Goldilocks and the Three Bears). The Gingerbread Man is snappy, the supporting cast of characters are equally dapper and droll, but none are the equal of the suave and slick Fox. Snip, snap. Yum.

While I like this book for a variety of reasons, I have realized that I can't read retelling of picture book stories I already know as I don't like it as much. What really made me like this book were the amazing illustrations and the patterned language. The illustrations really stood out to me as they encompass most of each page and are very detailed and colorful. For each big event in the story, there is an image to go along with it. An example of this is when the Old Lady and Old Man are first making the ginger bread, each time they do something extra to him; there is an image that goes along with it, done in great detail with different texture types. Another part of this story that I really liked was the repetition the author uses show more when the Gingerbread Man speaks, as he only speaks in rhymes. When he finds another person to gloat to about how they can't catch him, he repeats the same beginning he used for each of the other characters. He also shouts back at them as he is running away the same rhyme about not being their snack. The main story of this story is that all luck runs out and everything has their consequences. show less

This is my family's favorite version of The Gingerbread Man. The recipe on the back cover is good too. Not only is Barbara McClintock a great artist but she is a lovely human. (We have met her on occasion through her public appearances)

An old man and a woman bakes their own gingerbread man one day. As they open up the oven out runs the gingerbread man. Down the road he runs screaming,” you can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man”. He ran from the old couple , a butcher, a cow and a sow . Then he came to a tricky old fox and that is where his story ends.

This is a classic book. It has lots of rhyme and repetition and is very easy to follow. I think that this would be a great book to read aloud because I believe it would keep the attention of the children because of all the adventure in it.

In the classroom I would like the children to bake their own gingerbread men and to write their own rhyme about their gingerbread man.

I like this version of The Gingerbread Man a lot becuause of the illustrations and the style of writing that the author used. For example, to follow what the story was saying, the author placed the words in a way that made sense in context, instead of the words being in the same typical place on each page. I also really like how detailed and dramatic the illustrations are. It really adds to the meaning and I think it would really grab a child's attention. The main idea of this book centers around possession, I believe, and what really belongs to who.

I thought this book was pretty good. I liked the flow of the book. It was a really easy read and the words just moved from page to page. For example, “and they shaped his little arms, and they shaped his little legs, and the shaped his little head…”. I also liked the pictures in the book. During the book the Gingerbread man keeps challenging all the other characters to chase after him. The illustrator did a really good job of showing every character in detail as the gingerbread comes to challenge them. When the Gingerbread man gets to his last victim, the fox, you can see the old lady and old man, the pig, the cow, and the man all running over to him. It makes it easy to remember everything that was happening in the book as you go show more from page to page.
This book is traditional literature. I believe the message of this book is there will always be someone smarter than you. The Gingerbread man was able to get everyone to chase after him to avoid getting eaten except the fox. The fox was able to trick the Gingerbread by pretending he couldn’t hear what the Gingerbread man was saying so he had to get closer to the fox. The fox was then able to snatch the Gingerbread up and eat him as a snack. show less