Rochelle LarkinBesprekingen

Here are some of the greatest stories of all time. The familiar titles, like The Little Mermaid, are stories about things that are still important to us today, like families and loyalty, friendship and courage, getting along and making dreams come true. In this book, you will find stories that are favorites already, and others that will be new to you, but sure to become your favorites as well.

Includes:
- The Pied Piper
- The Little Mermaid
- Prince Rabbit
- The Horse and the Sword
- The Constant Tin Soldier
- The Princess and the Pea
- Dick Whittington and His Cat
- The Brave Little Tailor
- The Seven-Headed Serpent
- The Two Brothers

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The adventures of the three Darling children in Never-Never Land with Peter Pan, the boy who would not grow up.

A nineteenth-century boy from a Mississippi River town recounts his adventures as he travels down the river with a runaway slave, encountering a family involved in a feud, two scoundrels pretending to be royalty, and Tom Sawyer's aunt who mistakes him for Tom. -- GoodReads

Classic folk tale

I had mixed feelings about this book. There wasn't necessarily a main concept. Instead, it was a collection of tradition literature stories, which include a range of themes and morals. What I really liked about this chapter book was that it kept me engaged. For example, reading Cinderella, I thought I knew what was going to happen, but this traditional version included two separate balls! What I did not like about this book was the vocabulary. It definitely made it feel true to narratives, but it was also very hard to understand at times. I felt that I had to reread sections a few times, which would be an issue if this were to be used in the classroom. For example, the Princess Mayblossom story uses words such as "Alas." Some of the other stories would be able to be used, but I don't think I would use all stories in my classroom because of some of the vocabulary and syntax.

I liked this book for two reasons. First, the language is descriptive. For example, “as he looked down the chimney, he saw the big kettle of boiling water the pigs had set out to make their dinner” is descriptive and allows me to see the character looking down the chimney to see a pot of hot bubbling water. Second, the illustrations enhance the story. The illustrations enhance the story due to the detail. The illustrations allow readers to see strokes of hair on the wolf and the splint of wood on the wooden door. Also, the illustrations allow readers to see facial expressions that may not be easily visualized otherwise. The message of this story is that three minds are better than one. The first and second time the wolf tried to blow the house down, he succeeded because the lonesome pig in each house was not ready. By the third attempt, all three of the pigs were together and put their minds together to defeat the wolf.

I remember being really creeped out by Trapped! I re-read it a few times as kid. I don't remember much about the other stories in this one, but I enjoyed that one.

It Hunts by Night and Keeper of the Tombs were both good.

Escape From Evil was really good. Don't remember the rest...

This book is another version of the folktale of Sleeping Beauty. It would be fun to set up my dramatic play area for students to re-tell this story with props.
It might work best with 4year olds and up.

Summary: In this classic fairy tale a brother and sister set off into the forest to find food for their family. Their father warns them to mark their trail along the way so that they might find their way home again. Hansel drops bread crumbs behind him as they walk through the forest. The birds had come behind them and feasted upon the bread crumbs and the children were unable to find their way home. They try to hurry before it gets dark but they couldn't tell which way to go. Soon they happen upon a little house that was made of candy. They break pieces of the house off and begin to eat. A witch appears and blocks their escape route. She pushes the children inside the home and places them inside of wire cages. She then proceeds to fatten the children up with huge platters of food. Every week the witch would check to see how plump they had become and they would trick her by holding out sticks and claiming they were too thin. Growing tired of waiting the witch builds a fire and when she opened the cages the children pushed her into the fire, having grown strong from the good foods she fed them.They ran home to their father. After that they returned to the house many times to partake in feasting upon the candy.

Personal Reaction: Another classic story that I heard many times as a child, and enjoyed as a child. Yet, now as a adult I see it as a little bit on the harsh side. I over all still enjoy it. I do not like the illustrations of this particular books. I don't like the colors chosen and the drawing could have been better. The outlines are thick and there are small black lines all around the outlines of the characters, animals, and even the house and candy, that makes you think that they are in motion, when obviously the house is not in motion. I am unsure if the poor illustration is due to the fact I had bought this book a long time ago at Dollar General for $1 or if it was sold there for a $1 because of its poor illustrations.

Classroom Extension: The children can discuss what would have been better to leave behind on the trail in order for Hansel and Gretel to find their way home.

The children can discuss the witches point of view. How she felt to find children eating her home.

They can recreate and act out the story as a play.

We can mix media sources and have them watch this youtube clip of Lotte Reiniger's Silhouette drawing of Hansel and Gretel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxkIGXVwZTM Afterwards they can pick a favorite scene from the either the book or the video clip and make their own silhouette art using construction paper, pencils, pens, markers and black construction paper.

We can also discuss as a class how the book differs from the video and how fairy tales are passed down over the years and change. We could even use this opportunity to play the game of telephone to see how passing things down by word of mouth can change as each person hears something different.

This is the story of two children who contribute to the family by hunting for berries,nuts and mushrooms. Hansel uses bread crumbs to mark the way home, however,birds eat the crumbs.Hansel and his sister, Gretel become lost. They see in the clearing a gingerbread house and start to eat the sweet treats. Out comes a witch who captures them both. Because of her eyesight she never realizes that the children uses twigs for her to feel to see if they are plump enough to eat. As she grows impatience she starts a fire, the children push her in, return home and they live happily ever after.

Personal Response:
I have always liked this book. It is scary having a witch who eats children. I like the fact that the children help support the family by gathering edibles.

Extensions:
1. I would use this book to ask the class what else could mark the trail home, besides using bread crumbs that the birds feasted on.
2. The book has a good picture of a gingerbread house,so an art project of assembling a gingerbread house as a class project would be nice.½

The 8th issue of Fright Night collects another 3 stories to scare young readers. This one has zombies, evil electricity-eating power-line monsters, and a cursed island.

The book feels very dated. A couple times a Walkman is mentioned, for example, so this might hinder modern kids from fully connecting to the stories. The book feels more like a novelty now. I think adult readers who read them or similar things as kids will enjoy reading it for nostalgic purposes, but it might not be the best choice all young readers today.

Still, I remember reading Zombie Zone as a young boy and being quite terrified by it!

Best Scary Storie I Have Read

Awesome for little kids.

This book also contains several classics that I was familiar with. However, I never read “The Brave Little Princess”. It was about a princess who one day met a crow that asked her to come and keep him company and to help him break a curse that was inflicted upon him and his house. The crow told her that at night she had to be brave and not yell or scream when she heard or seen things for this would only delay his curse. The brave princess did and after seven years the curse was broken and he became a Prince and his household was returned to the way it was before.

I enjoyed it and have to admit that it scared me a bit when weird things would happen at night. The thing that was surprising to me was when it mentioned evil spirits. Even though that is only mentioned, once and briefly, it kind of threw me off and I wondered if I would read that to a class. I thought that maybe it would bring up too many questions or even scare the kids, but that is just my opinion.

In the classroom, I do not think that I would use this story. However, if I did use this story, I would be creative and want to use the students imagination. I would ask the students to draw a picture of what the house looked like during the curse or even to draw me a picture of what they thought the crow looked like. I think it would be a good opportunity for the students to be creative with drawing and help them appreciate the story more and remember it more.

This book contains several classics that many of us know as children. One story is titled “The dragon and his grandmother”. Three soldiers flee from a king who is harsh and does not pay them well. After fleeing, they become trapped in a corn field nearing death until a dragon finds them. The dragon saves them and gives them all the wealth that they want, but in return, after seven years they will become his property unless they can guess his riddles. One of the men befriends the dragons’ grandmother and she helps him solve the riddles. In the end, the men are set free from the dragons’ power and live as wealthy and free men.

I have never heard this story and really enjoyed it. It was a short and simple story but used several things that caught my attention. The three men faced many problems and yet one of them was always confident that things were going to be all right. This impressed me in showing that no matter what life throws at you, that one must remain positive and believe that things will work out in the end.

In the classroom, I would read a few of the stories from this book and asked the students which one was their favorite. I would then ask the students to write a short summary of the story and why that one was their favorite. I think that by allowing the students to choose which one was their favorite, this would be favorable in their eyes and would help them to recall the story better.

I read this book back in the 1980s, when I was a huge Beatles fan.½

This is a okay book.

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