The Three Billy Goats Gruff
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Stars:
- Publisher: Sandpiper
- Since: 1991-02-21
- Media: Paperback
- ISBN-10: 0440847443
Users who read this book
1 books read
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bookwormwildcat 6 months ago |
THE THREE BILLY GOATS GRUFF Pictures by Marcia Brown |
1 books read
Reviews on Amazon
(19people)- The book was not packaged correctly, and the corners of the book were damaged in shipment. It was the correct book and the book was usable. Two pieces of carboard would have saved the book from damage.
- I first heard this tale in Swedish, though the classic version was collected by the Norwegians Asbjornsen and Moe. I can't remember if it was read to me or told to me by one of my Swedish aunts. This edition is the finest, crispest, most authentic translation into English, without any up-to-date-ifying or tampering with the fierceness of the original.
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>Yes, I see the price! Makes me want to lower my horns and butt somebody off the bookseller's bridge. But honestly, mom and dad, you don't need the book to tell the story. Use your own personality to project it! My son loved the story and made me tell it again and again. We used to enact it on trails when we took family hikes. I'd run ahead and become the troll. He'd cross the bridge first as the kid. Then his mother would cross as the nanny, while he crept back to the starting point. Then he'd come across as the billy and butt me a hundred yards up the trail. Sometimes we played Brer Rabbit and the Tarbaby for variety. <
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>Read the eloquent previous review by Judy Polhemus for her thoughts about the illustrations. Then search the other booksellers if you MUST have this edition. <
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>Meanwhile, don't you wish you could butt a few trolls off the bridge that crosses amazon? - For the barcode: 019341071327 Amazon.com's database (as does a few others) brings up this version of this release. I have uploaded the artwork; both front & rear. Release Date: 1989. Manufactured by: Windham Hill Records; Produced by: Rabbit Ears Productions, Inc. Art Lande has a more than credible assemblage of musical talent and Holly Hunters voice, complete with "homey" accent, lend themselves to a throughly enjoyable rendition these classics.
- "The Three Billy Goats Gruff 1957" by P.C. Asbjornsen and J.E. Moe (the Grimm Brothers of Norway) and illustrated by Marcia Brown is what I call the scary version of this Norwegian folk tale. My library (I am a school librarian) has three other versions, all pretty and not scary at all. What good is a fairy tale if it doesn't make the little ones hug their neighbors in delicious fright.
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>Least you think I am a troll myself, I would like to remind you of that word the French gave us--frisson--that delicious scary feeling when we're safe. Thus, when I show the various book covers of "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" and ask which version they want me to read: the nice one, the pretty one, or the scary one, the children all hug each other and say without doubt--"the SCARY one!!" <
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>I might add that it is Marcia Brown's illustrations (yes, THAT Marcia Brown) that make this version the scary one. She smears on color, uses lots of black and reddish-browns, uses bold gashes of colors. Just the coloring technique lends itself toward that frisson. The introduction of the troll is a mudpit of fierce, scary browns and blacks with a hint of red in those browns--a pit of anger and hatred. The troll's huge eyes, long nose, and jagged, broken teeth add to the frisson. <
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>Listen to the word pattern: "On the way up was a bridge over a river they had to cross, and under the bridge lived a great ugly troll with eyes as big as saucers and a nose as long as a poker." <
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>When the troll comes out, the viewer sees him in his full scariness because he is right there "in our face," large as life. Then he says that scary line: "Who's that tripping over my bridge?" You know, any reader worth her salt is going to read it in a fierce voice, and adds: "Now, I'm coming to gobble you up!" <
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>Truly, this is some scary artwork, almost beyond frisson. "'It's I! the BIG BILLY GOAT GRUFF!' said the billy goat, who had an ugly hoarse voice of his own." And you should see THIS scary drawing of the BIG goat! When the third Billy Goat Gruff does battle with the bad ol' troll, body parts fly. Really! In a children's book! That's why some people disapprove of this version. <
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>It's a matter of taste. I always let students who seem fearful to go into the other room until I finish reading this version--the scary one! Afterword, everyone wants to check out this book. Oh, the other childen? If any went into the other room, they always return to hear the story. <
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>Books are magic. - Both my daughter & son absolutely love this book. They love to say the "trip trap" part. I enjoy reading it to them! I highly recommend this one!
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