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The Three Sillies
Inspired by an 1890s folktale, THE THREE SILLIES has been reinvented by popular author-artist Steven Kellogg as a deliriously outrageous comedy.
Once upon a time, a gentleman set out to court a farmer's daughter. But, as this gentleman soon discovers, the farmer, his wife, and their daughter are all hopelessly silly. The three of them cry a roomful of tears one day, all because they start a-thinking that the gentleman and the daughter may get married and have a baby boy, and that boy might one day be donked on the head by a falling mallet. Indeed, the gentleman is flabbergasted by their silliness. "I shall set out traveling," he announces, "and when I can find three sillies who are even sillier than you three, I¹ll come back and marry your daughter." Could three sillier sillies exist in all the land? Will the gentleman find them? Is it possible that the gentleman himself is the sillier silly he seeks?
Once upon a time, a gentleman set out to court a farmer's daughter. But, as this gentleman soon discovers, the farmer, his wife, and their daughter are all hopelessly silly. The three of them cry a roomful of tears one day, all because they start a-thinking that the gentleman and the daughter may get married and have a baby boy, and that boy might one day be donked on the head by a falling mallet. Indeed, the gentleman is flabbergasted by their silliness. "I shall set out traveling," he announces, "and when I can find three sillies who are even sillier than you three, I¹ll come back and marry your daughter." Could three sillier sillies exist in all the land? Will the gentleman find them? Is it possible that the gentleman himself is the sillier silly he seeks?
40 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
86 people want to read
About the author
Steven Kellogg
173 books175 followersSteven Kellogg is an author and illustrator who has contributed over 90 books for children. He is best known for writing books about animals, for which he credits his grandmother .
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
October 12, 2019
Unlike too many other folk tale adaptations, this does have an author's note on the copyright page. I, personally, think that Kellogg improved on the original, making it even funnier. I especially appreciated the speech balloons in the images, even the snarky cat. Normally I don't like speech balloons, but they worked here. 3.5 rounded up because I did laugh out loud once.
October 5, 2020
My DIL gave me a Turkish folktale book entitle Hilili and Dilili, about a pair of not too smart parents who were fortunate to get their daughter married to a well off gentleman. This book reminded me of this book which I had read to my children when they were small.
This is indeed a very silly book which I think 5-10 year olds might enjoy. Kellogg uses his talent to make the tale even sillier by the additional activities and comments that occur on each page. I have always loved Kellogg's illustrations and ordering some of his other books to enjoy anew.
I also am going to follow thru on the flyleaf note that noted Kellogg was inspired by a Jacob Grimm tale called Clever Else.
This is indeed a very silly book which I think 5-10 year olds might enjoy. Kellogg uses his talent to make the tale even sillier by the additional activities and comments that occur on each page. I have always loved Kellogg's illustrations and ordering some of his other books to enjoy anew.
I also am going to follow thru on the flyleaf note that noted Kellogg was inspired by a Jacob Grimm tale called Clever Else.
January 21, 2013
Title: The Three Sillies
Author: Steven Kellogg
Recommended Ages or grades: Preschool - 8
Three Sillies is a funny book. It's about a farmer’s daughter who is being courted by a gentleman and wishes to marry her. However, the family is a very silly family. As the daughter begins to think about her marry the gentleman and having a baby, she image that her child will one day be DONKED on the head by a falling mallet. The gentleman, who is flabbergasted, sets out on a journey to find three other sillies that are sillier than the one the farmer’s daughter had. He promises that if he finds the three sillies, he would come back and marry the farmer’s daughters. The book followers the gentleman all through his journey in search of the three sillies. He finds them, comes back to share them and keeps his promise and the two of them marry.
I thought this was a funny story. This book would be a good book for young children to read and to talk about each of the adventures. The adventures are entertaining.
Author: Steven Kellogg
Recommended Ages or grades: Preschool - 8
Three Sillies is a funny book. It's about a farmer’s daughter who is being courted by a gentleman and wishes to marry her. However, the family is a very silly family. As the daughter begins to think about her marry the gentleman and having a baby, she image that her child will one day be DONKED on the head by a falling mallet. The gentleman, who is flabbergasted, sets out on a journey to find three other sillies that are sillier than the one the farmer’s daughter had. He promises that if he finds the three sillies, he would come back and marry the farmer’s daughters. The book followers the gentleman all through his journey in search of the three sillies. He finds them, comes back to share them and keeps his promise and the two of them marry.
I thought this was a funny story. This book would be a good book for young children to read and to talk about each of the adventures. The adventures are entertaining.
February 9, 2017
The Three Sillies is a book about a girl who falls in love with a gentleman and becomes very sad due to a large mallet hanging on the ceiling. The girl becomes so frightened by a large mallet hanging on the ceiling of the gentleman’s cellar that her and her whole family start to cry. The young gentleman goes out throughout the town to see if he could find anyone “sillier” than the girl and her family. In the end, he realizes that even though they are a silly family, everyone has their own silly ways in their own lives. He marries the girl immediately, they have a baby boy together, and then they live happily ever after on all of their silly adventures.
I really enjoyed this book. It has great illustrations and I liked how the book shows that everyone is silly in their own ways. Some parts of the book would be very hard for a child to understand, like the vocabulary, but I think that is important for a child to expand their vocabulary.
I could use this book during Speech Therapy many different ways. First we could read the book and then if the client struggles with social cues, we could go through the book and see if what the people are doing, is what we do or if it’s safe. If the client is younger we could talk about the bright and vibrant colors and all of the animals. We could also go over the speech bubbles present in all of the photos and we can discuss what bubble comes first, then the next one and then the last one.
I really enjoyed this book. It has great illustrations and I liked how the book shows that everyone is silly in their own ways. Some parts of the book would be very hard for a child to understand, like the vocabulary, but I think that is important for a child to expand their vocabulary.
I could use this book during Speech Therapy many different ways. First we could read the book and then if the client struggles with social cues, we could go through the book and see if what the people are doing, is what we do or if it’s safe. If the client is younger we could talk about the bright and vibrant colors and all of the animals. We could also go over the speech bubbles present in all of the photos and we can discuss what bubble comes first, then the next one and then the last one.
June 8, 2022
The Three Sillies by Stephan Kellog- A British Folk tale- Children’s Illustrated Colour Picture Book- The book narrates a British folk tale where a gentleman set out to court a farmer's daughter. But, as this gentleman soon discovers, the farmer, his wife, and their daughter are all hopelessly silly. First, his daughter visits the cellar to fill a jar with beer. Here she witnesses a mallet in hanging from the roof. She imagines that had she married this young man and had a child, the mallet could fall and kill the child. She starts weeping. Her parents cannot wait for so long. They come to the cellar. They listen to the story of their daughter and start weeping. The young man is waiting for beer before his dinner. He comes down to them weeping for fear of mallet falling down. Young man climbs and picks up the mallet. He finds the family silly. He sets out travelling to find three such sillies before marrying a girl. Ultimately, he is able to locate more silly people during his journey. He returns back, marries the young girl and they are happy ever after. Coloured illustrations help the reader in relating to the story. I have read the Hindi language translation of this book.
January 4, 2022
Like a 3.5 for me--I really enjoyed the beginning with the whole family crying about a purely hypothetical/imaginary circumstance (a future son growing up and getting donked on the head with a hammer falling from the ceiling). With each additional "silly" person that the man met the story felt increasingly overstuffed with characters and weird situations and I wasn't sure how they tied together. This version has lots of funny wordplay and dialogue bubbles that older kids might find amusing.
November 2, 2017
Loved this. It was wonderfully illustrated. It was very silly as it was supposed to be. Something to make the kids laugh and parents or grandparents who may be reading it to them! Be sure to look at all the silly things going on at the bottom of the pages!
August 6, 2019
Super silly! 🤪
June 13, 2021
Hilarious! I liked the cat the best! Steven Kellogg is a master at writing funny children's books.
April 15, 2019
His book was very unique. It was clever witty and entertaining, however It wasn’t my favorite story. I gave it 3 stars because it was just okay in my opinion.
Guided reading: N/A
DRA Level: N/A
Traits: voice, presentation
Guided reading: N/A
DRA Level: N/A
Traits: voice, presentation
February 2, 2014
This book is about a family that has a daughter and falls in love with this gentlemen. He would come over for supper and the girl would go to the barn and get some beer. While pouring the beer she notices a mallet and thought what if she had a son and he came to fill beer and it fell on her. She began to cry. Her mother started to wonder where she was. She went to the barn and started crying about the son that she could have. Then later the father joins them. After the gentlemen comes in and starts laughing at them and calls them sillies. He said he will be on his way and if I find anymore sillies like you I will come back and marry your daughter. Indeed, he did meet more sillies and ended up marrying the farmers daughter. This book is a very interesting book. I thought it would be like the three pigs, but it was completely different. I like the cover of the book, it draws in readers because there is so much going on and readers wonder what this book could be about. Overall, good book.
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September 16, 2013Next I came across a book that I just did not really care for, called The Three Sillies written by Steven Kellogg. I was attracted to this book at first by the title as it sounded like it would be a cute and funny book. As I opened the cover I was immediately put off by the format of the pages, text, illustrations. There were words all over the place, large paragraphs, and then other sentences in books, some dialogue clouds, etc. It was just very confusing on what order you were supposed to read all of the text in. Any maybe there was not an order, but I believe it should still at least flow; this did not flow at all. This book I did not care for one bit and would not recommend using this in a classroom.
October 9, 2012
The book, The Three Sillies, is not a book that I would recommend for Primary children. The wording in this book is very confusing and all of the place. There are many dialogue bubbles that take over the pages making it unclear if I read the text first or the dialogue. I feel that many Primary children may get overwhelmed if they try to read this story on their own. The illustrations in this book are very neat and the facial expressions on the characters are priceless. The story itself is very funny and children can relate their families to the families in the story. Children will love to see how each family gets sillier and sillier as the story progresses.
October 3, 2014
The Three Sillies by Steven Kellog is a fun book to read. Its about a young farmers daughter who was being courted by a gentlemen. The gentlemen failed to realize that the farmers family were all silly sillies. He witnessed their silly silly adventures and decided to set of and find more silly sillies. His adventures are full with different kind of silly, silly, people. Read the book and find out just how many silly people are out there and the best part, is that the gentlemen becomes a silly, silly himself as well.
September 3, 2008
This is my last one for the day...this is our family's absolute favorite book to read together (which may give you some insite into our family that you may not have wanted :) We just have very silly boys and this book is filled with complete nonsense! 3 and up :)
May 15, 2010
This was one of my favorite folk tales growing up.
I'm not sure I like the layout of this book, in comic style, I think it's a little hard to read, but my nieces enjoy it and I haven't yet found a better edition of JUST this folk tale.
I'm not sure I like the layout of this book, in comic style, I think it's a little hard to read, but my nieces enjoy it and I haven't yet found a better edition of JUST this folk tale.
April 25, 2014
This funny tale inspired by different storytelling traditions (and what stories are not?) tells of a man who sets off to find three sillier people than he's met, and ends up with more silliness than he can handle. Terrific.
October 29, 2008
The same story as Six Fools by Zora Neale Hurston with a few changes. Cute if you like Steven Kellogg's style of having speech bubble along with blocks of text.
May 8, 2009
Great retelling of a little known English folk tale. Kellogg has a great sense of the comedic, both in his words and pictures.
December 4, 2012
the sillies are very silly
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September 6, 2016Traditional--Folktale--Noodlehead Tale
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April 17, 2014Noodlehead Tales
January 21, 2017
Retelling from Joseph Jacob's 1890 ENGLISH FAIRY TALES.
June 24, 2007
More for older kids. I like the illustrations.
February 11, 2008
Cute story; causes me to wonder if silly things are really silly as people say they are.
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December 5, 2017Title: The Three Sillies
Author: Steven Kellog
Genre: European Folktale
Theme(s): Folktale, Fairytale
Opening line/sentence:
Once upon a time there was a farmer and his wife who had one daughter, and she was courted by a gentleman.
Brief Book Summary:
This book is about a a young man that is about to marry a young woman. He discovers that she and her family are silly and have not met anyone sillier than them. So he then sets off on a journey to look for people sillier than them before marrying her.
Professional Recommendation/Review #1:
Kirk’s Reviews
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...
A foolish hero, a featherbrained heroine, and a bevy of muddle-headed characters lead the cast in this wry retelling from Kellogg (The Three Little Pigs, 1997, etc.). When a buffoonish gentlemen courts a young maiden, he discovers that silliness is epidemic in her family. While getting some cider, the young maiden daydreams about her pending marriage, the birth of her son, his growth to manhood, and his death when a mallet “donks” him on the head. She begins crying, relates the sorry scenario to her parents, and sets them sobbing, too. The gentlemen sets out to find three people sillier than his future wife and in-laws, a task that is easier than he imagined, and he returns willingly to their fold. A close encounter with the mallet during the wedding festivities serves the gentleman a slice of crow as he ultimately appears the most foolish of all. Kellogg’s bright, cartoon-like illustrations coupled with the hilarious captions make for a raucous tale that pokes fun at the foibles of those who count themselves as serious.
Professional Recommendation/Review #2:
Carolyn Mott Ford (Children's Literature)
http://www.clcd.com/#/bookdetail/1/0/...
The author credits a classic English fairy tale and folklore with inspiring his retelling of this story about a silly farmer, his silly wife and their silly daughter. A wealthy gentleman comes a-courting and the daughter thinks he is quite handsome. The daughter is sent to the cellar to draw cider for the guest and as she turns on the tap, she begins to imagine that a disaster may occur if she marries. As she is a-thinking, she forgets about the cider. Her parents come down to the cellar and, when she tells them her fears, they join her in a-crying. Soon the cellar is a-wash in cider and tears. The gentleman comes down to check on the family and he laughs at their far-fetched notions. He declares that they are silly, but he will set out to find three sillies even sillier and, when he does, he will return and marry the daughter. The illustrations are captioned in cartoon style and will probably provoke laughter from youngsters as they read of the silly shenanigans of the various characters encountered in the quest for the silliest of the silly.
Response to Two Professional Reviews:
In regards to both of the professional reviews, I think The Three Sillies is a great children’s book. The illustrations and the text are presented in a way that is engaging for the readers and hilarious at the same time. The illustrations are fun and eye-catching with captions that are just as funny.
Evaluation of Literary Elements:
The Three Sillies is a great children’s literature selection because of its many great literary elements. One literary element that this book effectively utilizes is its characters. As demonstrated in Tunnell et al., good books often contain characters that are unique (p. 17). This book contains characters that are fun and interesting with unique personalities. Therefore with this, it is engaging for the readers as it allows them to become invested in them and motivates them to continue reading about what is going to happen next for the characters. Another aspect of this book, in regards of its effective use of literary elements is its illustrations. In Molly Bang’s Principles, it says that the lines of certain illustrations can often affect how the audience views it. As stated in the two professional reviews, it uses cartoon like illustrations making it fun and more of a light hearted approach.
Consideration of Instructional Application:
This would be a great book for identifying character traits for students. All of the characters in this story contain such unique personalities, it would be a great book to create a mini lesson regarding characters. I would have the students list down notable traits of each character and have them identify what makes each character different and unique.
Author: Steven Kellog
Genre: European Folktale
Theme(s): Folktale, Fairytale
Opening line/sentence:
Once upon a time there was a farmer and his wife who had one daughter, and she was courted by a gentleman.
Brief Book Summary:
This book is about a a young man that is about to marry a young woman. He discovers that she and her family are silly and have not met anyone sillier than them. So he then sets off on a journey to look for people sillier than them before marrying her.
Professional Recommendation/Review #1:
Kirk’s Reviews
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...
A foolish hero, a featherbrained heroine, and a bevy of muddle-headed characters lead the cast in this wry retelling from Kellogg (The Three Little Pigs, 1997, etc.). When a buffoonish gentlemen courts a young maiden, he discovers that silliness is epidemic in her family. While getting some cider, the young maiden daydreams about her pending marriage, the birth of her son, his growth to manhood, and his death when a mallet “donks” him on the head. She begins crying, relates the sorry scenario to her parents, and sets them sobbing, too. The gentlemen sets out to find three people sillier than his future wife and in-laws, a task that is easier than he imagined, and he returns willingly to their fold. A close encounter with the mallet during the wedding festivities serves the gentleman a slice of crow as he ultimately appears the most foolish of all. Kellogg’s bright, cartoon-like illustrations coupled with the hilarious captions make for a raucous tale that pokes fun at the foibles of those who count themselves as serious.
Professional Recommendation/Review #2:
Carolyn Mott Ford (Children's Literature)
http://www.clcd.com/#/bookdetail/1/0/...
The author credits a classic English fairy tale and folklore with inspiring his retelling of this story about a silly farmer, his silly wife and their silly daughter. A wealthy gentleman comes a-courting and the daughter thinks he is quite handsome. The daughter is sent to the cellar to draw cider for the guest and as she turns on the tap, she begins to imagine that a disaster may occur if she marries. As she is a-thinking, she forgets about the cider. Her parents come down to the cellar and, when she tells them her fears, they join her in a-crying. Soon the cellar is a-wash in cider and tears. The gentleman comes down to check on the family and he laughs at their far-fetched notions. He declares that they are silly, but he will set out to find three sillies even sillier and, when he does, he will return and marry the daughter. The illustrations are captioned in cartoon style and will probably provoke laughter from youngsters as they read of the silly shenanigans of the various characters encountered in the quest for the silliest of the silly.
Response to Two Professional Reviews:
In regards to both of the professional reviews, I think The Three Sillies is a great children’s book. The illustrations and the text are presented in a way that is engaging for the readers and hilarious at the same time. The illustrations are fun and eye-catching with captions that are just as funny.
Evaluation of Literary Elements:
The Three Sillies is a great children’s literature selection because of its many great literary elements. One literary element that this book effectively utilizes is its characters. As demonstrated in Tunnell et al., good books often contain characters that are unique (p. 17). This book contains characters that are fun and interesting with unique personalities. Therefore with this, it is engaging for the readers as it allows them to become invested in them and motivates them to continue reading about what is going to happen next for the characters. Another aspect of this book, in regards of its effective use of literary elements is its illustrations. In Molly Bang’s Principles, it says that the lines of certain illustrations can often affect how the audience views it. As stated in the two professional reviews, it uses cartoon like illustrations making it fun and more of a light hearted approach.
Consideration of Instructional Application:
This would be a great book for identifying character traits for students. All of the characters in this story contain such unique personalities, it would be a great book to create a mini lesson regarding characters. I would have the students list down notable traits of each character and have them identify what makes each character different and unique.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews