The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Title: The Three Billy Goats Gruff
Author/Illustrator: P.C Asbjornsen and J.E Moe, Marcia Brown
Genre: Fantasy
Major Awards: N/A
Age Group: K - 3rd grade
                                                   
Summary:
This story is like The Three Little Pigs, just told through goats and a troll and has a darker undertone. The Three Billy Goats were wanting to cross a river to get to the other side to go eat some grass and get fat. Each goat crosses over and awakes the troll who is angry and says that the goat is going to get eaten. The first two goats say the same thing, which is to wait until the biggest goat comes along. When that goat comes along he ends up defeating the troll and the three goats are left alone now to eat in peace.

I do not think I would use this book in my classroom because I did not like the writing style or the darker undertone. It read easy, I just think I would be able to find a different book for this age group.
If I did use this book I would use the different sounds in the book and teach my students sound words.

Once Upon MacDonald's Farm...

Title Once Upon MacDonald's Farm
Author/Illustrator: Stephan Gammell
Genre: Fantasy
Major Awards: N/A
Age Group: 1st - 3rd
                                                    
Summary:
This book is about how Old MacDonald got his farm that we all sang about when we were younger. In this telling of the story, MacDonald wants animals on his farm so he decides to buy an elephant, a lion, and a baboon. While these animals are not farm animals, he does not acknowledge that and uses them like they were. The elephant plows the grass, milks the lion and gets the eggs from the baboon. Or at least tries. While MacDonald sleeps the animals decide to leave without a sound so when he wakes the next day he has no animals. However, his neighbor offers to help him and gives him a horse, a cow, and a chicken. He was eager to start working so he starts with the chicken plowing the grass.

This book is fun to read and quite hilarious. The age group for it is younger elementary which I find is appropriate. The students would laugh at the farmer's foolishness and be able to decipher if the animals actually do what the farmer wanted them to do.

I would use this in a lower elementary level class and have the students do matching with animals after we read it to tell me the purpose of the animals on the farm listed in the book.

Once Upon A Time

Title: Once Upon A Time
Author/Illustrator: John Prater
Genre: Fantasy
Major Awards: N/A
Age Group: K - 2nd grade

                                                    
Summary:
In the book, Once Upon A Time, a boy is in his neighborhood where nothing seems to happen so he makes up wild day. Throughout the story, you can see each page progresses with different illustrations from different fairy tales. Such as Humpty Dumpty, Little Red Ridinghood, and so on. As it progresses the different fairy tale characters are progressing as well as if they are in their original story, such as Little Red Riding Hood meets the wolf and Humpty Dumpty falls off. While that is going on, the dialog is brief and is just talking about what the little boy is doing with his mom until his dad gets home. It ends with the dad starting to read a story to his son and the fairytale characters are going home as well.

In my classroom, I would use this book to assess the students to make sure they were remembering and knowing about the different fairytales in the book. I would use this book after we went over the fairytales illustrated throughout the book.

I think K through second grade would benefit the most from this story because of how short it is, and it does not necessarily teach a moral lesson but it expresses imagination which is necessary for young children to have and keep.

In my classroom, I would use this for a sentence stem of "Once Upon A Time" and have the students write their own fairytale.