The Tortoise and the Hare
by Jerry Pinkney. 
Picture Book. 40 pages. Grades PreK-3.
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Review
After his brilliant Caldecott winning The Lion & the Mouse Jerry Pinkney has followed it up with the story of "The Tortoise and the Hare." Here, we get a wonderful treatment of the familiar story of the speedy and overconfident hare racing against the slow but consistent tortoise told with sparse text and gorgeous artwork.
Setting the action in the US Southwest allows Pinkney to create beautiful rich colors in his characters and set them against the savory browns, yellows and golds of the terrain. Unlike The Lion & the Mouse, which is wordless, this tale has text, but it is very spare.
Here it's the artwork that grabs your attention, tells the story and delights us with the expressiveness of the characters and the overflowing exuberance of the action. Pinkney's animals are not cartoon-like and also, not exactly lifelike either.
The only real text is the moral which builds, word by word, throughout the race, "Slow," "Slow and," "Slow and steady," etc. Somehow this has the effect of thoroughly integrating the moral with the action as well as with the triumphant victory cry at the end, "Slow and steady wins the race!"
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Things to Talk About and Notice
- It's fun to notice how he has included all the natural features of the creatures while also adding bits of clothing (the tortoise wears a train engineer's hat and a kerchief while the hare wears an auto racing checkered flag as a neck scarf) and, most importantly, human expressions and gestures. How does he find that balance, what makes it so beguilingly effective here?
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Related Books
Grades PreK - 3
The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney. Wordless Picture Book. 40 pages.
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This wordless Aesop fable is gorgeous. We are surprised when the lion frees the mouse he has caught and then touched when mouse finds a surprising way to return the favor. The cover of the book fittingly is absent of any title or other print to set the silent nature of a wordless book from the very beginning. A great retelling of a classic for a new generation. Winner of the 2010 Caldecott Medal.
Grades PreK - 6
Aesop's Fables by Jerry Pinkney. Picture Book. 96 pages.
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Sixty tales including "The Grasshopper and the Ants," "The Gnat and the Bull," "The Ant and the Dove," and "The Lion and the Gnat." Pinkney has given us a gorgeous retelling of these ancient tales written about 2,600 years ago with artwork that is subtle as well as compelling. This is a collection that rewards close and careful attention. The large number of well-written tales is great for comparative literature activities and other folk tale lessons.
Grades 3 - 6
The Talking Eggs: A Folktale from the American South by Robert D. San Souci. Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. Picture Book. 32 pages.
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This Creole folk tale is retold in the milieu of the 19th century South. It tells of a mother and her daughter, Rose who mistreats her other daughter Blanche. In Cinderella style she is befriended by a old woman who demands respect in spite of bizarre doings. As a reward, Blanche is given talking eggs which open to reveal great treasures.
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