Rick Schreiter

A Ballad The Derby Ram
I had mixed feelings concerning this book. I enjoyed that the book has a sing-song way pattern and uses rhyming. “As I was going to Derby, Upon a market day, I met the finest ram, sir, That ever was fed on hay.” The pattern is catchy and allows the reader to flow through the text. However, I felt the illustrations were dark and a little scary for young children. All the colors are browns, tans and dark reds. The faces are slightly distorted and unfriendly. To add to the scary features, the book talks about when the ram is slaughtered. “The man that killed the ram, sir, Was up to his knees in blood, And the boy that held the pail, sir, Was carried away in the flood”. Although this book was written in 1967, I’m not sure that in today’s world this would be acceptable in the classroom. Additionally, because of the age of the book some of the language may not be familiar to young readers. For instance, “a rick of hay”. The big idea of this story is to tell a folktale of a huge ram.… (meer)