The true story by A. Wolf

Front cover

"You may think you know the story of The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf - but only one person knows the real story. And that person is A. Wolf. His tale starts with a birthday cake for his dear old granny, a bad head cold and a bad reputation. The rest (as they say) is history."

This is the blurb on the inside of the front cover of The true story of the 3 little pigs! It's all about perspective really.  This picturebook shows us the story we know and love from Wolf's perspective, and he's certain he was framed! 

I've already featured a picturebook that takes this traditional story and gives it a twist, The three little wolves and the big bad pig, making it very appropriate for older learners.  This too is a great title for the teenage ELT classroom.

The true story of the 3 little pigs was written by Jon Scieszka and illustrated by Lane Smith, who together, with Molly Leach as designer, create incredible picturebooks. 

As with all these adaptations of traditional stories, the humour comes from the reader's previous knowledge and understanding of the original story.  This picturebook is particularly special and has been written about quite extensively by academics.  It's considered an example of a postmodern picturebook due to the way the illustrations subvert the words.  Probably one of the reasons it's not used much in ELT.  I hope that by talking about it here, someone will have a go and do great things!

So let's take a look at this example of a postmodern picturebook!

The font cover is the front page of the Daily Wolf - naturally the perfect tabloid to  cover this kind of story: headline is the title of our story and the journalist is A. Wolf (though we are also told that there is a real author "As told by Jon Scieszka") The wolf in the photo is depicted as a well dressed gentleman with a polka dot bow tie and wearing studious glasses. The pigs he is supposedly blowing (huffing?) are pink and shiny.  Our reader is also pig, can you see his trotter holding the bottom right corner of the newspaper?

Back cover

The back cover is a collage illustration of a page of a newspaper - strips of columns of text, interrupted by a miniature illustration in the centre, showing the scenes of the crimes.   So not only does the newspaper represent sensationalism, but there's a hint of the courtroom here, of judgement day. 

Title page

As usual I have the paperback edition of this picturebook.  So it opens immediately onto the title page.   A sepia tone to the title page illustration gives an air of time past.  There are four objects placed together in the centre of the aged background, some tufts of straw and a twig set in a measuring jug, all placed on a brick.  Could these be pieces of evidence?   
And so the Wolf's side of the story begins ... He introduces himself.  

Opening 2

The words are matter of fact, in the  first person (for it is the Wolf who is telling the story).  He asks us to call him Al, "I don't know how this whole Big Bad Wold thing got started ...".  The illustration is dark, but you can just make out the prison stripes in the Wolf's sleeves.  He's looking out at the reader quite innocently, and adjusting  his glasses. "Maybe it's because of our diet.", he says. The Wolf is peering up from behind the table top, "Hey, it's not my fault wolves eat cute little animals like bunnies and sheep and pigs.  That's just the way we are. If cheeseburgers were cute, folks would probably think you were Big and Bad, too."  An enormous hamburger shines out at us from the illustration, Lane Smith has used a photo of a real bun, and filled it with all sorts of delicacies.  Can you see the different animals sticking out of the filling? 

Before I go on, just a note about the illustrations: on most openings they are shown in frames.  There's a photograph like feel to them, as though they have been kept in an album, those wiggly edges remind me of the photos my Mum has of her family in the 50's.  Frames around illustrations are supposed to make us feel detached - we look at these illustrations with very little sympathy. 

Opening 3

Even the illustration of long-ago-school-day slate, here in opening 3, is a framed image.  "The real story is about a sneeze and a cup of sugar."   But the introduction has been made, and we are now ready to hear the real story, Wolf's story.  The verso in this opening is a wonderful collection of letters, representing elements from within the story we know so well.  There are references to the three houses made of brick, sticks and straw.  We can see a piggy tail and a snout. A big mouth with a sticky out tongue (E) and the wolf's bushy tail. And the pair of ears at the bottom of the page, encourage the story along ... go on then, I'm all ears! 

Opening 4

"Way back in Once upon a time ..."  A mixture of real and fantasy in one breath!  Here is Wolf making a cake for his "dear old granny" - her picture is on the wall, and if you look closely you will see two rabbit ears sticking out of the mixture.  What a mixture it is too!  Whole eggs, shells and all.  Lane Smith has used collage quite minimally here, the eggs, the butter in the bottom right corner and the picture frame.   Wolf tells us he ran out of sugar for the cake, so he went next door to borrow some. 

Opening 5

The next door we are shown is miles away! And as we all suspect it's  a house of straw, which the Wolf is most derogatory about, "... who in his right mind would build a house of straw?"  Upon knocking on the door, it fell in and that's when his nose started itching!  He huffed and he snuffed... 

Opening 7

And we all know what happened next! 

Opening 8

The words continue to describe the incident in a dead pan sort of tone... "And you know what? The whole darn straw house fell down. ..."  The illustrations in verso look like the aftermath of a huge explosion, and the dead little piggy's bottom is visible in the middle of the straw strewn ground.    Wolf looks visibly perplexed in the verso "... such a shame to leave a perfectly good ham dinner lying there in the straw. So I ate it up." 
This happens once again with the pig who lived in the stick house, the Wolf's nose tickles, he huffed and he snuffed, and the little pig ended up dead and ... "Think of it as a second helping", said Wolf! There's a small vignette, showing us a fat Wolf, holding his stomach! 
At the brick house the Wolf is very upset: not only did the pig tell him to go away,  a pig who looks big and mean through the small window in the illustration, but he also yelled, "And your old granny can sit on a pin!" The straw that broke the camel's back ... the Wolf admitted to going nuts. 
That's when the cops arrived, to find Wolf "huffing and puffing and making a real scene." Funnily enough they were all pink pigs!
And "The rest they say is history."  

Opening 14

The newspaper in this illustration harks back to the front cover, only this time, it's The Daily Pig, and the headlines read "BIG BAD WOLF!", "Wolf: I'll huff and I'll puff ..., "A.T. Wolf big and bad", Red Riding Hood settles dispute out of court", "Canis Lupus - seen as menace".  The hand holding the paper looks like it could belong to Wolf this time. 
The final page shows us Wolf as he is today, the after-the-story-Wolf, the one who's been framed!  He looks feeble alongside the mean looking pig in prison uniform!

Opening 15

It's a brilliant picturebook,  using words and pictures to create an entertaining, clever version of the well-known story.  And of course it makes you wonder about all the other underdogs in traditional stories. What about the wicked step-mother?  The two ugly sisters?  The giant at the top of the bean stalk? Maybe they were all framed?  Great extension activities for students to write alternative narratives based on the underdog. 


As usual there are a number of Youtube films but I like this one in particular, the narrator's voice is so matter of fact and jolly, it's great!  

And there are some interesting resource pages on the net if that's what you like: Scholastic resources; LitGuides and other stuff.


More and more I just love the sharing of a good picturebook, and this one is sooo good.  Giggling and laughing together in class, sharing the visual verbal jokes - there's nothing more motivating for a language learner. 

Snow White in New York

Front cover

Snow White is a European fairy tale. The version we are all familiar with is probably that of the Grimm Brothers and or the Disney one of 1937.  Whichever, Snow White is well-known to most children.  The story of a motherless child, whose father remarries. The step-mother is jealous of Snow White's beauty and tries to do away with her. She is abandoned somewhere far away, where she happens upon seven kind men, who look after her, until eventually she is poisoned by the step mother and dies.  But all ends well when a handsome prince discovers her coffin, and the bit of poisoned apple stuck in her throat is dislodged and she awakes.  In the Disney version, they fall in love and live happily ever after!  But the Brothers Grimm have the step mother go to the wedding and be forced to dance herself to death in a pair of iron shoes!  

Snow White in New York is vibrantly illustrated version of the Snow White story, set in New York in the Jazzy, Art Deco of the 1920's. It was first published in 1986 and won The Kate Greenaway Medal. The illustrations are spectacular and evoke the era brilliantly.  

Back and front covers

The front and back covers are one continuous illustration.  Those parallel streets we associate with New York, are at the centre of each cover, with huge buildings looming on either side. The abstract colourful shapes represent all the different signs and lights and they blink at us as we study the illustration.  That has to be Snow White walking towards us, the sun rising behind her.   

Title page

The title page comes next in my paperback edition.  The sun is still rising, it's radiating rays in pink and yellow stretch out behind the New York buildings. 

Copyright page

Upon turning the  page we arrive at a wordless spread - well not quite, the verso contains the copyright information, but the recto shows us a large building, quite definitely a rich person's home, with a chauffeur waiting outside in a very smart car.  I wonder who lives there?  

Opening 1

"Once upon a time there was a poor little rich girl called Snow White ... "  so that's who lives there, Snow White.  But poor thing, this is her step-mother, wicked right from the first opening, her pointy red nails and her slit, green eyes looking out at the reader.  The father has no idea of her wickedness, and is shown looking straight ahead.  Snow White is standing in the street, tiny and pink in the back ground. The signs stand boldly behind her pointing towards the happy married couple.   

Snow White's step mother was the "classiest dame in town", but unknown to everyone she was also the "Queen of the Underworld", and she just loved to see herself in the "New York Mirror", the best tabloid in town!   It was in the paper that she read about her step-daughter. 

Opening 3

"Snow White the belle of New York City" ... The two women appear as equals in the illustration and again Fiona French has used symmetrical motifs, showing each woman flanked by men in hats and suits.  Snow White is curvy and pink, yellow arches cris-cross behind her.  She is smiling, her golden curls are soft and luminous. She is the archetypical of goodness.  The men around her are young and handsome too.  The step-mother is in red and black, she is scowling, her eyes are looking straight out at the reader, challenging us to stop her wickedness!  The men around her are old, their noses hooked, their mouths down-turned. We see the good and the bad.   

And we all know what happens don't we?  In this version, Snow White is taken "down town". 

Opening 4

Can you see her?  Down town is dark, in contrast to the rest of the city, filled with sparkling lights.  I really like this illustration.  The contrasting architecture, the reflections in the water, and Snow White being left by the step-mother's body guard.  

Snow White is lost and alone, and she wonders the streets of down town New York, until she hears some music coming from an open door. 

Opening 5

Will our students recognise the kind of music she hears? I suppose it depends, but it's a great double spread, with Snow White peeking in at the doorway, and the red sun rising again in the early morning.  Seven jazz players, and of course they let her stay, as long as she works. 

Opening 6

"'What can I do?' she asked.  'Can you sing?' said one of them."  And the illustration answers the question.  Can she sing!  WOW! The change from black silhouettes to reddy-yellow ones is superb.  Snow White is in the limelight, her white skin, and solid red dress, with just one or two red tassels, surrounded by the seven jazz players, cris-crossed in yellow and orange, you can almost hear the music as Snow White sings for them.   And just as luck would have it a handsome newspaper reporter was in the audience and he writes about this brand new star.  The step-mother reads about Snow White's debut and is "mad with rage".  And so she decides to do the wicked deed herself, and plans a party in honour of Snow White's success. 

Opening 9

"Secretly she dropped a poisoned cherry in a cocktail and handed it to Snow White with a smile." Snow White is surrounded by people who think she is wonderful, but the words direct us to the step-mother mixing a cocktail, the bottle of poison on the plant stand nearby. 

Opening 10

A wordless spread, the happy party represented in the background, the cocktail about to change hands.  

We don't get shown the dying scene, instead we are taken to the New York streets in the rain. Newspapers tell us what happened, as they have done through out this story.  They are full of the news of her death and crowds of people stand in the non-stop rain as her coffin is driven through the streets.

Opening 12

But of course we know what happens, as the seven jazz players carry her coffin up the church steps, one of them stumbles and ... "Snow White opened her eyes." The poisoned cherry, stuck in her throat was dislodged and she looked into the eyes of the handsome reporter. They fell in love, had a big wedding and lived happily ever after!

Opening 14

The illustrations also show us what happened to the step-mother!  

Similar to the picturebook, The three little wolves and the big bad pig, this kind of adaptation can be used with older students as the first step towards making their own versions of well-known and traditional stories.  But, what I like about this particular title are the visual representations of good and bad, happy and sad, safe and dangerous, Fiona French uses colour and shape brilliantly.  In addition, the technique of filling spaces with lines of colour reminds me of the impressionist paintings of Seurat , who used dots instead of lines, but the idea is the same. Finally using a picturebook like this when students are learning about the period of  Art Deco in history can help them make connections and possibly follow up with some research into architecture, art, clothes, music, cars etc of the time.  

The house that crack built

Front cover

Not long ago a friend and colleague asked me if I knew this picturebook, The house that crack built by Clark Taylor and Jan Dicks.    I didn't, was intrigued and ordered it. 
My recent focus on traditional songs and rhymes is an excellent background for this particular title, which takes the familiar children's nursery rhyme, This is the house that Jack built  and turns it into a thought provoking picturebook about the drug trade and cocaine addition. What's so clever about taking such a topic and creating a picturebook is the wider audience it reaches. Children in primary can understand the simple text and look at and question the illustrations. Older students, teens and young adults, can use both the words and illustrations as a spring board for deeper, more thought provoking discussion. Its cumulative rhyme has a hip-hop beat to it, which again makes it very suitable for teens. The house that crack built was published nearly twenty years ago with the intention of helping children understand how to make the right choice about drugs. The proceeds of sales go towards drug education, prevention and rehabilitation programs that specifically help children.  

Le Rêve by Pablo Picasso (1932)

Let's take a look at the illustrations. The front cover depicts the street where it all happens. The two more realistic figures reappear in the picturebook on the title page and on the afterword page.  They aren't actually characters from the visual narrative, but possibly represent the children this picturebook is written to help. Children with nothing to do, children whose parents aren't around much, shoeless children in an urban setting. The pale figures in the wall mural, separated by the symbolic crack, hang as though in mid-air, their skin pale and sickly, their faces stylistically reminiscent of cubism.  There's a well-known portrait by Picasso called Le Rêve (The dream), shown here on the right, where we can see some similarities to the way the faces have been painted by the illustrator. The dislocated head position is seen again in some of the later illustrations, representative of being high. In the foreground, the gutter is full of cigarette ends or stubs from left over joints.
The endpapers are scattered with  coca leaves.

Endpapers

As we begin the rhythmic cumulative verbal text, the story reveals itself line by line on the verso, with the illustrations facing, on the recto: square illustrations with a white boarder, or frame, around them.  

Opening 1: "This is the House that crack built"

A framed illustration is supposed to have a psychological affect on the viewer, we look at it detached and unemotionally.  Do these framed illustrations make us feel detached? This particular illustration could be any beautiful mansion in a hot country, but the words make us rethink and its affluence takes on a different meaning. 

Opening 2: "This is the Man, who lives in the House that crack built"

We are shown the man who lives in the house:  a sleek, clean cut individual, with an original Matisse, La Nu Rose (1935), hanging on his wall.  The causal sequence continues, introducing us to the soldiers who guard the man, dark eyed men with rifles over their shoulders. Then the farmers who collect the coca leaves ...

Opening 4: "These are the Farmers who work in the heat and fear the Soldiers, who guard the Man, who lives in the House that crack built"

Many of the illustrations in this little picturebook contain unusual perspectives: in opening 4 we have  a close-up of the Farmer, but we can't see his eyes.  The poor woman with no shoes is only shown from the legs down: faceless in the sequence of events.  
In the next illustration we are shown the coca plant against a sunny blue sky, a pretty plant ...

Opening 5: "These are the Plants that people can't eat, raised by the Farmers who work in the heat and fear the Soldiers who guard the Man who lives in the House that crack built." 

... but as the verbal text emphasises the people can't eat it, it feeds no-one, instead it's made into cocaine and exchanged for large sums of money in the the streets of the civilized world. 

Opening 7: "This is the Street of a town in pain that cries for the Drug known as cocaine, made from the Plants that people can't eat, raised by the Farmers that work in the heat and fear the Soldiers that guard the Man who lives in the House that crack built." 

This illustration shows us what it's like in the street.  Seen through a window, a faceless woman holding a baby. Outside, an anguished woman is banging her head on the wall, a man with an upside-down head, high - the cigarette or joint ends separating the foreground figure form those in the background.   
We next meet "the Gang, fleet and elite" then the "Cop working his beat".  

Opening 9: "This is the Cop working his beat, who battles the Gang, fleet and elite, that rules the Street of a Town in pain ..."

We encounter a "Boy feeling the heat" who sells the "Crack that numbs the pain" ...

Opening 12: "This is the Girl who's killing her brain, smoking the Crack that numbs the pain, bought from the Boy feeling the heat ..."

We are shown woman, smoking. Her head too is upside down, her belly is large - is she pregnant? And then we are shown "the baby with nothing to eat, born of the girl who's killing her brain...".  Finally ...

Opening 14

"And these are the Tears we cry in our sleep

that fall for the Baby with nothing to eat,

born of the Girl who's killing her brain,

smoking the Crack that numbs the pain,

bought from the Boy feeling the heat,

chased by the Cop working his beat,

who battles the Gang, fleet and elite,

that rules the Street of a town in pain

that cries for the Drug known as cocaine,

made from the Plants that people can't eat,

raised by the Farmers who work in the heat

and fear the Soldiers who guard the Man 

who lives in the House that crack built."

"This is a book about choices." writes Michael Pritchard in the afterword, "... the author used his poetic voice to remind us the problem is out there. The illustrator used her artistic vision to bring the tragic nature of the problem powerfully alive. And the publisher chose to blend these visions into a book and use its profits (...) to help fight the problem.  Together they have created a tool that can be used to open discussion and to help children learn to make the right choices. Together they have reminded us that in small and personal ways each of us has the power to change the world."


It is indeed a very powerful, though physically small, book and one I am certain can be used with teenagers and young adults in ELT contexts.  I hope that in sharing this title, I have encouraged some teachers to  take up the challenge. 

Recommendation nº 6: The three little wolves and the big bad pig

Front cover

I've decided to feature two recommendations this month, to keep with the theme of traditional stories.   This is a wonderful title, and recommended by Helen Davies, an English teacher in a French state school.  A great suggestion Helen, and I've had loads of fun looking at this picturebook, discovering all sorts.  

Eugene Trivizas is a sociologist, with a PhD in criminology and one of Greece's leading children's authors. He's written over 100 children's books and this title was the first to be written in English.  I've already featured a picturebook illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, and her delightfully detailed watercolour illustrations bring another dimension to Trivizas already very funny words.  

The three little wolves and the big bad pig is of course a retelling of the traditional story, The three little pigs and highly suitable for older students.  Helen has used this picturebook with teens. 

The front cover is an illustration of The Three Little Wolves taking a break from building work, perched on scaffolding.  Each is nibbling something meaty, a chicken drum stick or a hamburger.  They look relaxed and happy, fastidious with checkered napkins on their laps and open lunch boxes at their sides.   It's a great cover image setting the scene for the many building projects which we will be shown as the story progresses.   However,  only the three wolves appear on the front cover and they are without doubt the goodies, but try turning over to the back cover...

Back cover

The back cover continues the illustration with scaffolding stretching across the picture, and here we see the Big Bad Pig, climbing up a ladder and leering in the direction of The Little Wolves.  It's a wonderful combination and well worth opening out the book to show the continuous image. 
The title page shows us one of the creatures we will encounter later, a beaver, well-known in the animal world for his strong dams.  He's shown next to a dirty bucket, but it's not clear till later what is actually in the bucket.

Recto 1

The first page is a single recto. A large amount of text explains which of the wolves is the oldest, "The first was black, the second was grey and the third was white."  Mother wolf tells her cubs they have to go out into the big world.  She warns them to take care of ... can you guess... the big bad pig! But look carefully at the illustrations. What is mother wolf doing? Painting her nails black!  The fur on her head is in curlers and the end of her tail, which is sticking out of the bed covers, is also in curlers.  She has a flippant look to her, tired of her cubs and ready for the good life again, the posh red slippers on the floor by the bed giving us an inkling of the way she likes to dress. 
Off go the wolf cubs and they soon meet a kangaroo carrying red and yellow bricks.  

Opening 2

As with the original story, the wolves are given what they ask for and they work hard to build their strong house of bricks.  Their lawn grows quickly too, and one day while they are playing croquet the "big bad pig came prowling down the road".  We are then treated to the well-known question answer routine, accompanied by Helen Oxenbury's delightful tongue-in-cheek paintings, showing a mean old pig and scared wolf cubs.

"Little wolves, little wolves, let me come in!"

"'No, no, no,' said the three little wolves.  "By the hair on our chinny-chin-chins, we will not let you in, not for all the tea leaves in our china teapot!'"  

Then, the pig "puffed and he puffed and he huffed and he huffed, but the house didn't fall down." 

Opening 5

"But the pig wasn't called big and bad for nothing." What did he do? He got his sledgehammer and knocked the house down!  Look carefully at the illustration, can you see the wolf cubs escaping?  The black wolf is carrying a china teapot!  They are very frightened.
We know how the story goes: the wolves need to build  a stronger house, but what is stronger than bricks?  Concrete!  They meet a beaver who is making concrete in a mixer.  He gives them all they need and they work hard on their new concrete home.

Opening 7

They are playing badminton when the big bad pig arrives. Opening 7 is a great double spread, a small black and white sketch of the pig, looking thoroughly mean and the wolves in grey tone against their grey concrete house.  The pig is a bright pink peering over the wall in the background, can you see him? 
We are told of the question answer routine, "Little, frightened wolves, let me in...."  and then when we turn the page... "But the pig wasn't called big and bad for nothing."

Opening 8

He gets "his pneumatic drill and smashes the house down"!   The close up of the pink pig with the wolves escaping in the background is hilarious.  They have tied their sheets to make a rope and the teapot is there, ready to be grasped as they flee, "but their chinny-chin-chins were trembling and trembling and trembling."
An even stronger house is needed. Luckily for the wolves, they meet a rhino driving a lorry full of "barbed wire, iron bars, armour plates and heavy metal padlocks."  "The three little wolves built  themselves an extremely strong house" and felt "very relaxed and absolutely safe"! 
This time the wolves were playing hopscotch when the pig arrives. 

Opening 11

That pig is diffiuclt to stop.  Alert students will notice the red dynamite sticks on the grass under the pig in verso and, during the usual dialogue and huffing and puffing, they already know how the big bad pig is going to destroy the house.  "Frightened little pigs, with the trembling chins, let me in!"

Opening 12

And the little wolves are running off carrying their teapot, their fluffy tails scorched.
What could they do now?  They were certain there was something wrong with their building materials. Luckily for them along came a flamingo pushing a wheelbarrow full of flowers.  

Opening 13

And they decided to build a house of flowers. It had a wall of marigolds, one of daffoldils, one of pink roses and another of cherry blossom.  The roof was made of sun flowers and they had a carpet of daisies.  It was beautiful, but very fragile. And along came the big bad pig. "Little frightened wolves with the trembling chins and the scorched tails, let me in!"
And as the pig inhaled to blow down their house ...

Opening 15

The scent from the blossoms softened his heart and he realized how terrible he had been ... "he became a big good pig". He sang and he danced and made freinds with the wolves.  They played "pig-pong and piggy-in-the-middle", and they invited him in for tea and they all lived happily ever after!

Back verso

Can you see? They are drinking tea from the teapot they salvaged from each house, as they ran for their lives. 


Hilariously funny, and kids just love the absurdity of the pig's badness and the ever stronger houses culminating in a soft swaying flowery one. Brilliant adaptation, with stunning illustrations.  It begs rereading, enabling students to discover threads of visual and verbal narratives: Visually they will pick up on the different playground games, the animals and their goods, the teapot at each escape.  Verbally they will enjoy the cumulative greeting from the pig, who begins by calling the wolves, "Little wolves, let me in!", and finishes with, "Little, frightened wolves with the trembling chins and the scorched tails, let me in!" They'll join in the memorable dialogues, and will love saying, "But the pig wasn't called big and bad for nothing."


Helen describes using the book as a base for re-telling well-known stories, with students creating their own retold stories.  Other writing activities could include:

• Taking the view of the pig and describing being bad and then becoming good, and explaining why;  
• Becoming a reporter and writing up the story for a newspaper. 
• Writing a post card to mother wolf from the cubs, explaining the events, and the happy eneding. 

These are challenging activities, but possible with older students who have a fair bit of language competece.   This link, to a set of Scholastic activities, meant for mainstream learners but useful for ideas, may be of interest.  Enjoy!

Recommendation nº 5: The gigantic turnip

Front cover

The Gigantic Turnip, illustrated by Niamh Sharkey has been recommended by Teresa Fleta, a teacher, teacher educator and great friend, who lives in Madrid, Spain.  I'd only seen this title in Portuguese, so it was good to order it in English and give it a good look over. 

I've already featured a picturebook by Niamh Sharkey, an Irish illustrator who uses oil paints to create her big, bold illustrations.   You can see her brush strokes in some of the backgrounds and they add a lovely textured feel to her work.  

This particular picturebook is published by Barefoot Books, they have a very special publishing moto, here's a part of it: "Interactive, playful and beautiful, our products combine the best of the present with the best of the past to educate our children as the caretakers of tomorrow".  

As you can see from the front cover the book comes with a CD which contains the narrated story - a nice addition, read by clear-voiced Ellen Verenieks.  

We all know the Russian folk tale, made famous by Aleksei Tolstoy, about an old couple who plant some turnip seeds and one grows to such an enormous size that they can't pull it out without help from their animals.  It's a cumulative story, getting longer and longer as more animals are called to help the old couple.  Finally they manage to pull up the turnip with the help of a mouse and everyone eats a very large amount of turnip soup or stew.  It's well known in ELT, and included in course books and reader sets. 

Portuguese turnips

The big orange root vegetable we can see on the front cover is actually quite unlike a turnip.  Turnips are white with a purpley top.  The turnip in the illustration looks more like a swede, of similar shape, but more orangey in colour and completely different in taste. But this is a cultural thing, for in Ireland and Scotland, swedes are called turnips! In the States they're called swedish turnips.  When I show this image to my students they can't quite match their Portuguese turnips with this yellow thing! 

But let's look at the book, the back cover has a nice collection of other vegetables for us to look at, most of which are immediately recognisable. 

Back cover

The half title page contains a small cameo of the elderly couple pulling at the turnip, an illustration which is also shown later in the story, and the copyright and title pages introduce us to some of the characters in the story, again snippets from within. They don't contribute in any way to the narrative, though children will comment on the large cow underneath the title  during repeated reads, confirming it is the cow from the story. 

Copyright and title page

The first spread introduces us to the couple, in their overgrown garden, with the verbal text appearing in the garden path, with the font changing size.  

Opening 1

The following spreads set the scene, introducing the animals in the story, and the act of planting. Here are the animals.  Note they start in the verso with the smallest of animals and finish in recto with the big brown cow. 

Opening 2

We need rain for plants to grow, so along it comes beautifully depicted in this spread showing the dark night and the plants in the garden beginning to grow.  Can you see the turnip leaves already big and strong?

Opening 4

We are told, not shown that the seasons pass, everything is harvested and that at the end of the row there is a gigantic turnip.

Opening 5

Nice use of space here, and children really get a feel for the size of the turnip.   The enlarged font works well too. And so the next day the old man got up ... there's a lovely bit where the verbal text says, "the old man sat up in bed, sniffed the cool, late summer air and said, 'It's time for us to pull up that turnip.'",   And he really did try, and here begins the cumulative, repetitive part of the story : "The old man pulled and heaved and tugged and yanked, but the turnip would not move."   And so he calls his wife, and they "... pulled and heaved and tugged and yanked, but the turnip would not move."  The woman fetched the brown cow. 

Opening 9

Can you see the pigs in the background?  On each occasion we are shown the animals who will be called to help when everyone is unable to budge the turnip.  And of course they get smaller in size and larger in number.  "The old man, the old woman, the big brown cow, two pot-bellied pigs, three black cats, four speckled hens, five white geese, and six yellow canaries, pulled and heaved and tugged and yanked. STILL the turnip would not move." 

Opening 14

They were  all exhausted! "But the woman had an idea." She found a mouse, who she caught using some cheese, and she took him outside to help. 

Opening 17

And so now it was almost night time, they've spent all day trying to pull up this turnip!  "The old man, the old woman, the big brown cow, two pot-bellied pigs, three black cats, four speckled hens, five white geese, and six yellow canaries, and the hungry little mouse pulled and heaved and tugged and yanked."  

Opening 18

"POP!", every thing went backwards ... "The canaries fell on the mouse, the geese fell on the canaries... [and so on].  All of them lay on the ground and laughed." The turnip could almost be a planet in this illustration it is so big!   Every one ate the huge turnip stew, but "the hungry little mouse ate most of all."

The mouse also has a lunar look to him in the illustration, with the night sky as a background.  

Facing the verso illustration, you can see the CD and back flap with information about the illustrator, narrator and Barefoot Books.  All nicely compact. 

It's a nice version of the traditional story, with lovely illustrations.  The verbal text is long, but much of it is repetitive, and the children will enjoy chorusing the different animals, especially "two pot-bellied pigs". Teresa didn't give me any follow up activities, but we can all imagine a fun dramatisation with masks and enough characters for a classroom of 25, if one child is the turnip! Great fun!  But most of all read this several times over a number of lessons.  The exposure to the rich language will help children remember it and they'll soon join in. 

Thanks to Teresa for sharing!