This big, beautiful book offers 20 favorite tales from around the world that will tickle the funnybone of young listeners. While most of the tales are totally new to Americans and come from countries as far flung as Iran and Italy, the Bahamas and Borneo, children will be delighted to discover some tales with themes similar to their favorites, such as “Rumpelstiltskin” and “The Three Little Pigs.” The brief, lickety-split retellings beg to be read aloud and the nearly 90 lively, colorful illustrations invite children to look at the book again and again.
These are really more of fables than tales… and some of them aren’t all that silly! It was an interesting collection for sure, and while the fables weren’t nearly as light-hearted as I expected, I’m rounding up to 4 stars because this book was really a cross-cultural experience for me.
Grade/interest level: Primary (K-2nd) Reading level: I could not find it for this book, but I do know that this is not meant to be read independently but rather read aloud to the class Genre: Traditional literature
Silly & Sillier is a compilation of folktales from around the world from twenty different cultures. Each story is popular tale from a specific country and contains a funny twist to suit the attention of younger readers. A few of the stories include familiar themes that have been heard of here in America like “The Three Little Pigs”. The book is filled with talking animals and silly monsters that will surely capture the hearts of young readers!
I would love to use this book in my classroom to expose my students to stories from different cultures. The students can compare and contrast these tales to ones from America and even from their own cultures. I believe this is a great segue to begin talking about my students’ cultures and incorporating them in the classroom.
This is a collection of folktales from around the world told by Judy Sierra with illustrations by Valeri Gorbachev. The selections are interesting, exciting, funny, and entertaining. The illustrations are classic Gorbachev fun, lively and in-tune with the story. Two of my favorites from this collection are Argentina's, "Juan Bobo" and Mexico's "One Good Turn Deserves Another." I would take these and read them to any class any day! Folktales would be a good starting point to talk about different cultures and use research tools to study about them.
I read this book because I was looking for a multi-cultural text that I could use in my future classroom. I liked this choice because it represents a variety of countries and stories from each particular culture. I especially liked that they include some native language in each story. I think this would be a great way to introduce culture and other languages, especially if there is a student in class who also speaks that language at home. Luckily there are many online translators that also help with pronunciation. This would definitely make a good addition to a classroom library.
It was an interesting collection of tales from around the world. A few of the stories were recognizable, just with different characters and circumstances.
This big, beautiful book offers 20 favorite tales from around the world that will tickle the funnybone of young listeners. While most of the tales are totally new to Americans and come from countries as far flung as Iran and Italy, the Bahamas and Borneo, children will be delighted to discover some tales with themes similar to their favorites, such as "Rumpelstiltskin" and "The Three Little Pigs." The brief, lickety-split retellings beg to be read aloud, and the nearly 90 lively color illustrations invite children to look at the book again and again.
Notes Judy Sierra is the author of Tasty Baby Belly Buttons, Antarctic Antics, and Monster Goose . Valeri Gorbachev is the author-artist of Nicky and the Big, Bad Wolves and other Nicky books.