Tomie dePaola's Favorite Nursery Tales Told by Tomie dePaola
Putnam, 1986
ISBN 0-399-21319-8
Summary:
Tomie dePaola retells traditional tales collected by Jacobs, the Brothers Grimm, Asbjornsen, and Aesop. Along with these traditional fables and folktales, he also includes modern tales by writers such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Hans Christian Anderson. The bulk of the stories, however, are traditional stories.
Some favorite stories included are "The Little Red Hen," "The Frog Prince," "The Three Little Pigs," "Rumpelstiltskin," "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Elves and the Shoemaker," and "The Three Billy-Goats Gruff."
Critical Analysis:
All of the tales are retold in a manner faithful to tradition with characters, plots, and morals that are easy to understand. The language dePaola uses is interesting because while most words are easy for young readers to understand, he does use some more sophisticated words that would expand children's vocabularies: "waistcoats," "gratitude," "lofty," and "procession." These words do not interrupt the story but do expose children to new words.
While dePaola's charming folk-art illustrations are appropriate to the tales, I can't help but notice the humans are all rosy-cheeked Anglos (who look somewhat similar to dePaola himself) wearing traditional English clothing. The one nod to a different culture might be the head coverings worn in a Russian tale, "The Straw Ox."
I would still happily read the book to students or my own kids, but I would also provide some cultural variation with other stories.
Putnam, 1986
ISBN 0-399-21319-8
Summary:
Tomie dePaola retells traditional tales collected by Jacobs, the Brothers Grimm, Asbjornsen, and Aesop. Along with these traditional fables and folktales, he also includes modern tales by writers such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Hans Christian Anderson. The bulk of the stories, however, are traditional stories.
Some favorite stories included are "The Little Red Hen," "The Frog Prince," "The Three Little Pigs," "Rumpelstiltskin," "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Elves and the Shoemaker," and "The Three Billy-Goats Gruff."
Critical Analysis:
All of the tales are retold in a manner faithful to tradition with characters, plots, and morals that are easy to understand. The language dePaola uses is interesting because while most words are easy for young readers to understand, he does use some more sophisticated words that would expand children's vocabularies: "waistcoats," "gratitude," "lofty," and "procession." These words do not interrupt the story but do expose children to new words.
While dePaola's charming folk-art illustrations are appropriate to the tales, I can't help but notice the humans are all rosy-cheeked Anglos (who look somewhat similar to dePaola himself) wearing traditional English clothing. The one nod to a different culture might be the head coverings worn in a Russian tale, "The Straw Ox."
I would still happily read the book to students or my own kids, but I would also provide some cultural variation with other stories.
The author's dedication caught my eye: "For my mother, Flossie Downey dePaola, whose lap I sat on a long time ago, and listened to her tell me many of these stories." I can't help but wonder how much these early memories of hearing traditional tales contributed to the Caldecott and Newberry winner's literary success.
Review Excerpts:
"The book design is handsome and spacious, the illustrations variously successful. DePaola is at his best in a light mode: the humor in the art for 'The Fox and the Grape' and 'The Emperor's New Clothes,' for instance, enhances elements of both tales, while some of the fairy tales suffer from a farcical graphic interpretation, as in the pictures for 'The Frog Prince,' or from stock images like those in 'Rapunzel.'"
Review Excerpts:
"The book design is handsome and spacious, the illustrations variously successful. DePaola is at his best in a light mode: the humor in the art for 'The Fox and the Grape' and 'The Emperor's New Clothes,' for instance, enhances elements of both tales, while some of the fairy tales suffer from a farcical graphic interpretation, as in the pictures for 'The Frog Prince,' or from stock images like those in 'Rapunzel.'"
Betsy Hearne
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, February 1987, v. 40
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, February 1987, v. 40
"Like a good winter coat in a large family, this anthology can be passed along to many children. . . . The only off note is Longfellow's 'The Children's Hour,' which is so much more sentimental than the other selections. . . . DePaola's droll, witty, and very funny illustrations capture the essence of each story from a child's point of view. . . . The beautiful layout of these pages, in which the print and pictures are perfectly at ease with one another, invites confident new readers as well as adults for reading aloud."
Anna Biagioni Hart
School Library Journal, January 1987, v. 33
School Library Journal, January 1987, v. 33
Connections:
Have students turn tales into fractured tales or reader's theater scripts.
Have students turn tales into fractured tales or reader's theater scripts.
Have students use text details to draw scenes from stories.
Compare similar characters from different tales. For example, use the foxes found in "Johnny Cake," "Chicken Licken," and "The Fox and the Stork." What traits do the foxes have in common? How do they differ? What does this tell us about humans' views of foxes?
Use longer tales to practice finding plot elements: setting, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Draw and illustrate a plot map.
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