The Tortoise and the Hare: An Aesop Fable

This is one of my favorite children's book because it has such a great message “ He learned an important lesson: HARD WORK AND PERSEVERENCE BRING REWARD." I love that the story concluded with the lesson in all caps at the end; it drives the message home to the reader. This book is such a classic and I have seen it used in the classroom numerous times. The story has the reader guessing who will win the race. Children would love to read this story and make predictions along the way.
I found the characters in the story to be relatable. Growing up with an older brother who always doubted my abilities makes me the Tortoise of the story. It reminds me of all the times when I was able to beat my cocky brother and how I felt at that moment.

The Tortoise and the Hare is a book about a tortoise who is constantly teased by a hare. The hare makes fun of the tortoise. Hare teases tortoise about how slow he eats breakfast and says by the time he finishes it will be time fore dinner. The hare talks tortoise into racing him. The hare has the belief that he is going to beat tortoise so he takes frequent breaks. Hare takes one too many breaks and looses the race to tortoise.

I really enjoyed The Tortoise and the Hare. It always makes me smile when the underdog comes out on top. As for this particular edition or The Tortoise and the Hare I think it is great. The illustrations are very good in my opinion. They look as if they were colored with map pencils yet they are extremely show more bright. I feel this edition would be good for children because it gives examples of how hare teases tortoise and looses in the end.

This book could be used for different teaching purposes. First I could use it to introduce different types of animals. Second I could use this book to read to my classroom to help instruct them about trying and never giving up. I can show children no matter the issue you should always try your hardest. Third I could read this book to an older classroom during a unit on fables and classics. There are many different uses for this book in any classroom. show less

I liked this book for many reasons. The writing was very well organized and engaged the readers. The characters were well developed and the reader would be able to identify many character traits about both the Tortoise and the Hare. The Tortoise never gave up, while the Hare was over confident in his own abilities. The plot was well organized and was suspensful for readers when they did not know if the Tortoise or Hare would win the race. The illustrations did a great job of telling the story. If a child picked up the book who was unable to read, they would be able to tell what was going on based on the descriptive pictures. The main idea of the book is to never give up like the Tortoise when he raced the Hare and won!

The third retelling of the classic fable of The Tortoise and the Hare that I have read for my Aesop project, Janet Stevens' picture book ranks somewhere below Caroline Castle's The Hare and the Tortoise, and above Caroline Repchuk's The Race in my esteem, making it a solid two and a half-star book.

Stevens gives her adaptation a distinctly contemporary feel, with the "friendly and quiet" Tortoise and the "flashy and rude" Hare. But her narrative never really engaged my interest, and her illustrations, while colorful and very cute, simply didn't compensate. It's not that there is anything wrong with this book, it just left me feeling indifferent.

The main idea of this book is to show that hard work and perseverance are rewarded, while arrogance and pride can be our downfall.
I liked this adaptation of the Tortoise and the Hare for a few reasons. I enjoyed the additions to the plot that this author chose to make. She opened the book with Hare taunting Tortoise about how slow he is during various times of the day, which is an element I do not recollect. This gives the readers an immediate sense of the nastiness and bullying nature of the Hare. She also gave the Tortoise a bit more background and preparation before the day of the big race. For example, Tortoise trains to run the race. He jogs with his friend Frog, his friend Raccoon cooks him meals, etc. I never remembered these show more details being incorporated into the fable when I heard it as a child. I appreciated these additions because it reinforces the idea that Tortoise was very hard working as he trained. It also reinforces the idea that friends can help us through challenging times. Each of our friends, like Frog and Raccoon, have different talents that can help us.
I also liked this book because of the contrasting characters. Tortoise is a very friendly, humble, hard working animal who always tries his best. Hare is a bit arrogant; he knows his strengths and is not afraid to show them off. For example, Hare boasts, "You're so slow, I could beat you at a race, hopping backwards on one paw." I think that these contrasting traits are helpful for young readers. While there isn't too much complexity to these characters, and they do not appear to develop throughout the book, I believe young readers will be able to latch onto the very stark character traits. It makes the moral of the fable (perseverance vs. laziness/arrogance) much more comprehensible for young readers as well. They do not have to sift through complex character development, but will be able to clearly see the different outcomes for each of the very different characters (Tortoise and Hare). show less

The Tortoise and The Hare is a very short picture book about an arrogant hare and a confident tortoise. The main theme is something you might have heard before, slow and steady wins the race. In this case, the hare was overly confident and showed it by bragging about how fast he is. It can be a life lesson that bragging gets you nowhere and that there are even consequences. Now the tortoise decides to go slow and steady to win the race because the hare decided to take a break, resulting in him to fall asleep, allowing the tortoise to work hard and keep going. Another great lesson for the kids coming from this book, is to never give up no matter what.

This book is great for visualizing, it is widely well know and the children focus on what they picture during the reading instead of focusing on learning a new story. they can describe how they see each part, the hare's stops or the tortoise slow but steady pace, and the end where the slow tortoise wins against the speedy hare because he was easily distracted. This would be great for 1st or 2nd grade.