The Enormous Turnip (with Audio)

Usborne First Reading Level 3

by Katie Daynes (Retold by), Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Georgien Overwater (Illustrator)

When the farmer can’t pick a turnip out of the ground, he enlists his entire family to help him. But just how big can a turnip grow?! Simply written in lively, flowing text Usborne First Reading books are designed to capture the imagination and build the confidence of beginner readers. This book includes links to downloadable worksheets and teacher’s notes.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

48 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 25, 2006

About the author

Katie has been writing non-fiction children's books for almost half her life and loves questioning the world from a child's point of view. She's developed some of Usborne's bestselling series, including the See Inside books and the Lift-the-Flap Questions & Answers series.

Reviews

[Prabhat sharma · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Enormous Turnip by Katie Daynes, Illustrator - Georgien Overwater- The book re-tells the story of the popular book “The Enormous Turnip”. a farmer family who sows some turnip seeds in his farm. Rains arrive and the turnip seeds germinate. The grandfather looks after the farm with the help of his children. The grandfather observes that one of the turnips is growing faster than the other turnips. Soon the turnip is ready to be pulled out and cooked. Farmer tries to pull it but he is incapable to pull it out. He calls his wife, then the child, the girl, the dog, the cat and mouse. Now, with the combined strength, the turnip comes out. The shock is such that all fall back on one another. They sit up and brush the dirt from their clothes. They bring the turnip of the kitchen table. The lady cuts it and cooks for all. First day, part of the turnip is cooked next day, the rest of the turnip is cooked. Coloured illustrations help the reader in relating to the story.

[Sajeda Assenjee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I often wondered why my nephew and niece always asked for the same story every bedtime until I read The Enormous Turnip.I found myself laughing all the way through the story as each character came to join the tug of war with the turnip.I liked the way the characters were introduced at the begining by the author.This allows the reader to try and understand how they can help.The pictures are bright and colourful.A classic story that will be enjoyed by all!

[Alanah Shirfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have used this book in a Nursery class. The children listened to me read, as well as watching someone on YouTube read. We were able to create actions to the story, and made props so that the children could be the characters. At the end of the week, the children performed. They seemed to really enjoy this! Will certainly use again.

[مصطفي سليمان · Rating 3 out of 5]

قصة لطيفة عن التعاون لللاخراج ثمرة اللفت العملاقة
المحتوي و الرسوم لطيفة
تصلح للأطفال في الفئة العمرية ما قبل المدرسة

[Kristi Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book for a first grader - I read it with my daughter tonight and she liked it. Easy to read for her and the pictures are cute. Always a good story.

[Lex Redding · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read with my toddler, trying to heave an enormous turnip out of the ground!

[Hm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goood and funny 💝

[OxoNewbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good retelling of this story for young children. Lovely illustrations.

3 stars.

[Jasmine Caines · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a level 1 book of the ‘Read it to yourself range’ therefore it holds large and short text, large colourful pictures and repetitive text to build confidence in starting to read. This book is good because of its simplicity, the first page has a colourful page with all the characters: The old woman, the old man, the girl, the boy, the dog and the enormous turnip. The use of the word ‘the’ makes all characters equal and states early who will be in the story.
The old man plants turnip seeds where one grows very large which he wants for tea therefore he must pull the turnip out of the ground where it has grown; the plot of the book is therefore clear from the first piece of text from the story.
The man however cannot pull the turnip and asks the old women to help where ‘they pulled and pulled, but they couldn’t pull it up’ (Holmes, 12). This sequence is then repeated with the women asking the boy to help pull the turnip where again ‘they pulled and pulled, but they couldn’t pull it up’ (Holmes, 16). This repetition continues with the boy asking the girl to help pull the turnip, and the girl asking the final character the dog to pull the turnip. The reiteration gains confidence where beginner readers practice reading. Recurrence of words or rhymes speeds up the recognition of words and reaffirms a child’s comprehension of the text. Readers may not realise that they are not reading a great quantity of words yet the repetition in the text speeds up their reading and improves their confidence in reading other texts.
Finally, the five characters pull up the turnip and all have it for tea which concludes the story which was clear from the beginning. The first level of this range of texts presents a small number of repeated words which are supported by pictures to help with reading. Many unknown words could be worked out by sounding as they are many first story telling words learnt by school.
This book is very good for a child in the Early Foundation stage or a child struggling in the later stages of Key Stage 1 where they can build confidence and predict what will happen next in the story by the predictability of the book. The book’s predictability can limit anticipation within the plot of the story which limits the enjoyment perhaps in shared reading with an adult or advanced child.

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good beginner book for learners studying Afrikaans as their First Additional Language, as they could use the English version of the Giant Turnip to relate and assist them with the translation. I must admit this version is funnier than the English one, as the poor family eat the turnip for breakfast, lunch and supper. The farmer adds at the end, that maybe he must grow carrots the next year instead. The lovely illustrations add to this valuable reading book.

[Vesra (When She Reads) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent cute book to read for the kiddies.

Moral: teamwork

[Pan Fong Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

theme: teamwork

A good share for children, and interactions based on the storyline make the story more interesting!

[Simone · Rating 5 out of 5]

it's very funny!

[Taija · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know how some books get published, like this one for instance.

[Manu Kuriakose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple book with illustrations for beginners..