Author: Jacob and William Grimm
Illustrator: Hans Fischer
ISBN: 1558588930
I bet you're beginning to see a pattern in the books that I choose. You're either thinking, "Well, she loves animals," or you're thinking, "She must love music." You would be right about both!
The Bremen Town Musicians is a story about four miserable animals escaping their owners, who join together for the town of Bremen to become musicians. Along the way the animals encounter a band of robbers, outwit them, and discover a new home.
There are so many lessons that can be fashioned out of this wonderful book. The English translation of this tale makes for an excellent vocabulary lesson. The text in Bremen is short and descriptive, perfect for younger readers (K-2). It is quite dramatic, and I would definitely use many different types of voices to read this tale aloud. In fact, I would even have my students perform this tale as a play.
There are many different versions of the Bremen tale, this version (which, for years, was out of print) being my favorite. Fischer's book is unique in terms of illustration because the pages are mostly sparse. At first sight, I nearly put this book down because it was not as eye catching as the other tales on the shelf. As I turned the pages, I realized the few simple cartoon-like watercolors leave much more to the imagination than most other fairy tale illustrations tend to do. Each character in Bremen is introduced on a righthand page, meeting up with the group of animals on the following lefthand page. This simplicity is excellent for younger children and almost sets up a kind of anticipation to see what the following pages have to offer.
The Bremen Town Musicians is reminiscent of the tale of Don Quixote as the animals set out on a quest to become something; to find the contentment their own homes just couldn't offer. What seems to be such a sad tale of older, doomed animals turned into such a beautifully crafted, amusing tale. This is a tale of self discovery; an inspirational tale that allowing children to realize everyone has their faults. I love that this tale also teaches the reader that happiness is found in so many different kinds of places. You never know where you may find happiness!
I love that you chose a book with artwork that offers children a chance to develop their own imagination. It think the cover is beautiful, but I can see what you mean that it is not as eye catching as other books. It is great that you incorporated prediction as a useful lesson for this book to extend it beyond just a fairy tale.
ReplyDelete