Apples to Oregon

Extended Title: Apples to Oregon: Being the (Slightly) True Narrative of How a Brave Pioneer Father Brought Apples, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Grapes, and Cherries (and Children) Across the Plains
Author: Deborah Hopkinson
Illustrator: Nancy Carpenter
Year: 2004
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Pages: 40
Reading Level: Beginning Reader (ages 4-8)

Awards: 2005 ALA Notable Book, 2004 Golden Kite Award

Genre: Picture Book, Historical Fiction/Tall Tale/Western
Location: Oregon Trail
Time Period: Early 1800s

Plot: A tall tale based loosely on the life of Henderson Luelling, this book describes what it might have been like on the trail when a farmer from Iowa tries to bring not only his family across the prairie to Oregon, but also hundreds of fruit trees and vines as well. The family encounters adventures such as crossing the Platte and Columbia Rivers, dust storms, droughts, dangerous mountain passes, and the oncoming threat of winter.

Comments: Hopkinson writes in an amusing, singsong tone that sounds just like someone telling a western tall tale. Although this is the story of Henderson Luelling, children will like the fact that it is the main character, Delicious, who saves the trees again and again. Carpenter's oil paintings are fun and bright and golden, matching the tone of Hopkinson's tall tale. The end of the book includes a note about the source of the tale, describing who Henderson Luelling really was and giving a little bit of the history of what it takes to grow apples. Children can learn something with this book without feeling like the information is being crammed down their throats.

Themes: Crossing the Plains, Pioneers, Fruit, Apples, Henderson Luelling

Red Flags: A mighty dust storm requires all of the children to take off their clothes and drape them over the fruit trees, other slight instances of peril

Jack and the Animals

Author: Donald Davis
Illustrator: Kitty Harvill
Year: 1995
Publisher: August House Littlefolk
Pages: 32
Reading Level: Beginner (ages 4-8)

Genre: Picture Book/Folk Tale (The Bremen Town Musicians)
Series Information: Not part of a series
Location: Appalachian Region, America
Time Period: Undetermined

Plot: Jack heads out into the world to seek his fortune. He runs into a cow, a dog, a cat, a donkey, and a rooster who are all sad because they are too old to be useful any more. Jack invites the animals to join him on his journey. SPOILER! When night approaches, Jack and his friends find a robbers’ hideout and they break in to eat the robbers’ food. As they are finishing, one of the robbers come back. Jack and the animals blow out the candles and hide throughout the house. As the robber approaches each animal the animal attacks, and the robber runs from the house and tells his friends that the cottage is full of monsters. Jack shows the sheriff the robbers’ loot, and as a reward the sheriff gives it to Jack. Jack and his friends live in the cottage in comfort for the rest of their days.

Comments: This was a fun new version of the Bremen Town Musicians—a story I thought I knew pretty well. I especially liked the pictures, which helped show what the robber was imagining he was experiencing.

Themes: Friendship, Seeking Fortune, Triumph of Good over Evil

Red Flags: Some animal violence

The Musicians of Bremen

Author/Illustrator: Niroot Puttapipat
Year: 2005
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Pages: 32
Reading Level: Beginner (ages 4-8)

Genre: Picture Book/Folk Tale
Series Information: None
Location: German Countryside
Time Period: Early Seventeenth Century

Plot: Four old animals—a donkey, a dog, a cat, and a rooster—threatened by their masters with death, set out for the town of Bremen in the hopes of becoming musicians. Along the way they find a house full of robbers and break into the house, scaring the robbers away. SPOILER! When one robber comes back in the dead of night, the animals fight together to kick him out again. Unsure of what attacked him, the robber tells his friends that the house is haunted, and the robbers leave permanently. The animals live in the cottage together in peace and in comfort for the rest of their days.

Comments: This version of the famous Grimm’s fairy tale stays pretty close to the original, except for the fact that the author added more musical elements. Specific composers of the early Seventeenth Century are listed. Also, the book is set up like the Donkey is telling the other animals the story.

Themes: Friendship, Music, Triumph of Good over Evil

Red Flags: The old masters of the animals threaten to kill them.

Jump! The Adventures of Brer Rabbit

Author: Joel Chandler Harris
Illustrator: Barry Moser
Year: 1986
Publisher: Harcourt Brace
Pages: 40
Reading Level: Intermediate (ages 9-12)

Genre: Southern Folktale/Trickster Tales (Brer Rabbit)
Series Information: The First of the Jump! series illustrated by Barry Moser
Location: Deep South, North America
Time Period: 17 or 1800’s? Not Specified

Plot: Five different stories of Brer Rabbit’s cleverness and trickery are found in this book. Children can learn how Brer Rabbit out-smarted his enemies Brer Wolf, Brer Fox, and Brer Bear. They can also see Brer Rabbit get a taste of his own medicine when he is out-smarted by Brer Terrapin in a Tortoise and the Hare-esque tale that also involves trickery on the part of Brer Terrapin. The end of the book contains a song as well: Hominy Grove.

Comments: The Brer Rabbit stories may be appealing to young readers since it is Brer Rabbit and Brer Terrapin, the smallest of the animals in the community, who end up using their brains to pull a trick on those who are bigger and stronger than they are. Moser’s watercolor illustrations are fun, but they are not on every page, which makes this a book for older children who are patient enough to simply listen to the story.

Red Flags: This book encourages trickery, which some parents may not want their children to read.