Roxana M. Cabana
Roxana Borreda
The story “The great, big, enormous turnip” takes place in a farm in which an old man plants a little turnip and says “Grow, grow, little turnip, grow sweet. Grow, grow little turnip, grow strong”. When the moment to pull it out comes, he realizes that he cannot do it on his own so he asks the old woman for help. Since they still cannot remove off the ground the turnip, they resolve to call for more help, and so, more and more characters are added to the scene. Finally, after having made a terrible effort, they together pull out the enormous turnip.
Cooperation and friendship are values that rarely are seen in society and that appear in Alexei Tolstoy’s story. The book shows a mix of characters such as human beings and animals which make little readers get involved with the plot. Moreover, the text is written with no complex vocabulary, with repetition of sequences, simple verbs and nouns which are very common for children and that will make the reading easier and more fluent for them. The appealing illustrations of Helen Oxenbury are joined and explain perfectly the plot. The funny and visual pictures let young readers enjoy the story.
The book is truly recommendable. Perfect to read for story times or by children on their own, the story brings lost values to our children.
This review does not follow the common order of information in paragraphs , but it is very clear and caching! I liked it!
ReplyDeleteHere some brave girls who dared change the paragraphs order! Good review.
ReplyDeleteAlthough there is some extra information in the first paragraph, the review mentions the message of cooperation and also the author's style, which I think, are correct.
ReplyDeleteThis sentence is a little bit confusing to me:
"Cooperation and friendship are values that rarely are seen in society and that appear in Alexei Tolstoy’s story".
It sounds as if those values weren't present in the story.
Anyway, I agree with the message! :)
I agree with the meaningful message you want to transmit. It´s a very funny and useful story to use with children. I use it, at kindergarden but instead of a turnip, it´s a carrot.
ReplyDelete