What To Do? What To Do?

by Toni Teevin, Toni Teevin, Janet Pedersen (Illustrations)

Old Sophie lives all alone and yearns for someone to talk to. Her wish comes true one day when she hears some birds sing to her. “Nice lady, sweet lady,” they seem to say. Sophie is so delighted that she bakes her most delicious bread for them. But before long, their sweet twitters and tweets turn into greedy squawks and screeches. Soon, Sophie is weary of kneading, weary of baking, and very weary of birds. What to do? What to do?
Winsome, Eastern European–inspired watercolors and a lively narrative come together for a fresh, clever, and original tale that has all the makings of a modern classic.

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books

27 pages, Hardcover

First published June 12, 2006

Reviews

[Set · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a strange moral to teach children so young, considering that kids befriend other kids their age within a minute and they are taught to share. This is the story of an old lady Sophie that fed a few birds and they eventually became pests. She went to see a divination expert Vlama to get some help but she also wanted to take advantage of her. The moral of the story is to not take advantage of people. The story gets even more weird towards the end if that is possible. At the end of the story, she sells her bread and sets up days of when they can come get her bread and the towns people have to bring their own bread the rest of the other days.

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lonely old lady with no cats for company begins baking bread to give to the birds. As anyone who's ever hung a bird feeder knows, it doesn't take long for the "bully" birds to show up and start hogging all the goodies.

This one is pretty adorable with an absolutely terrific AHA moment.

As delightful as the smell of baking bread!

[Lara · Rating 3 out of 5]

2+ rounded up.

Bright watercolor illustrations, but a little bit of a meandering story to get to a lesson about sharing and still having boundaries. I guess about bullying too, though the bullies are really the birds, who are being nice in order to take advantage of Sophie's bread. Not the strongest A to B logical link, but it worked.

I think it'd be a little over the heads of my storytime group, but for a younger grade school bunch, it would be interesting to start a discussion about how we treat friends and treat ourselves.

[Brianna Mendenhall · Rating 5 out of 5]

What to Do? What to Do?

Old Sophie lives all alone and yearns for someone to talk to. Her wish comes true one day when she hears some birds sing to her. “Nice lady, sweet lady,” they seem to say. Sophie is so delighted that she bakes her most delicious bread for them. But before long, their sweet twitters and tweets turn into greedy squawks and screeches. Soon, Sophie is weary of kneading, weary of baking, and very weary of birds. What to do? What to do?
Winsome, Eastern European–inspired watercolors and a lively narrative come together for a fresh, clever, and original tale that has all the makings of a modern classic

I gave this story a 5 star rating.

I absolutely adore this story because it teaches children that it's okay to put yourself before everyone else sometimes. I feel like we constantly teach children that they need to love everyone else more than they love themselves, but that's not a healthy mindset to have all the time. Sophie gets pushed to her breaking point, and she cleverly finds a way so that everyone wins, including herself. This would be a great story to use when teaching problem solving in the classroom!

[Angela Hutchinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, a nice old woman lived alone and was very lonely. One day, she went to the well to retrieve some water when she noticed some black birds perched there. The lady said to the birds that they were nice and sweet and the birds told the old lady that she was nice and sweet. The old lady decided to make some bread for the birds to eat. Then, trouble began as the birds became more numerous in numbers and a little ungrateful. The birds followed her everywhere and would not leave her alone, until one day the old lady came across a fortune teller. She decided to go inside and soon realized the lady only wanted her money. The old lady told her all she had was a scarf and an old orange hat. The fortune teller took the goods and the birds began to follow her. Finally, the old lady decided to bake bread among other things to sell at the market and she lived a happy life. This would be a great book to teach children about being thankful and grateful for what they have and not be rude to other when they are feeling greedy.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this one. Seemed like kind of an unusual moral for a kids' book -- about a people-pleaser who realizes she's being taken advantage of. Her clever solution gives it the charm of a classic fairy tale.

[Kristin Sprague · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was like none other I have read. It was odd, but interesting. The main character's dilemna in the story could help students to learn problem sovling and critical thinking skills/strategies.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mommy and baby will like this one. Beautiful pictures and cute story line about a lonely woman looking for friendship.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would use this book to help students learn about predicting and imaging. The illustrations are remarkable as well as the wording of the story.