THE THREE BILLY GOATS GRUFF: Give This Old Classic a NEW READ!

Those of us raised in a Euro-centered culture will immediately recognize that folk tale in the title of this post. The Three Billy Goats Gruff is among many traditional tales that were read/told to me in my early years (years that predated the joyous availability, in recent decades, of NEW and original picture books). Retelling, updating, shifting perspectives, and other approaches to turning those familiar tales into new versions have ranged from brilliant to odd/unpublishable. 

ORCHARD BOOKS (Scholastic)
December,  2022

I place this effort in the brilliant category.

In this case, THE THREE BILLY GOATS GRUFF, retold by the talented Mac Burnett and illustrated by the talented Jon Klassen, the pairing of their impressive talents produced a winningly fresh approach to a well-known tale. Burnett's retelling follows closely to the original, but engages from page one through to the chuckle-worthy ending. 

The humor threading through the text and illustrations accounts for that undeniable appeal. Troll is not depicted in the typical style of trolls, especially those found in a more Norwegian approach that may have come to mind when you first read the title of this post. It's not that Troll isn't comparably gross, doesn't also long to gobble up "meals" that dare to cross his bridge. In fact, though, this particular troll more closely resembles an oversized river rat. Troll clearly resides in the muddy, stagnant waters below the bridge, bobbing with bones and bugs and trash. Endpapers provide an even more elaborate image of Troll's "home", including skulls and ribs and a sense of how disgusting this character actually is. 

Burnett's text provides some suggestion of all this. Then Klassen's art (as limited in color and evocative in detail and rough edges as his work often is) generates a cautionary mood to readers. Do not mess with TROLL! This effect makes the bravery of each goat even more impressive without requiring added text in that aspect of the story. 

Where Burnett does expand text it serves to take readers into the personality and eating-obsession of that Troll fellow. The narrative overall is not rhymed, but Troll adopts rhyming chants that feature his imaginative approach to the "gobbling" he desires. 

Repetition of his rhymed-challenge to those who cross offers a hint of his language skill:

"Who seeks to reach the grassy ridge?/Who dares to walk across my bridge?"

Each encounter suggests chef-level imagination, singing on the page, suggesting enticing menu options. A short example follows:

"Goat smoked, goat poached, a goat pot roast.

Goat smorgasbord! Goat smeared on toast!

A goat kale salad-- hold the kale.

Goat escargot! (That's goat plus snails.)

On goat I'll dine, on goat I'll sup.

You little goat, I'll eat you up!"

This effective development of Troll as a complex character allows readers to view Troll as perhaps less evil and more intriguing. Readers will certainly be rooting for the goats, but the eventual fate of Troll as we come to know him elicits a slightly empathetic reaction, at least it did to me. 

Don't let the familiarity of your childhood memories of this tale cause you to overlook or dismiss this new offering. It is a lively, laughable, and wry look at a classic, providing the central story with a very creative take. It passes and exceeds the tests of readability out loud, re-reading appeal, and potential for new discoveries with each reading. 

Bon Apetit!

Two Journeys to a Similar Destination: The Best Place to Be

For every moment in the past fourteen-to-sixteen months in which you've resisted or resented being "stuck" where you are, for every grace-filled moment of gratitude and appreciation that you actually had a safe place to be, and for every wish you've made that you could be someplace better, some vague feeling that there IS a better place waiting for you to find, I offer you two new picture books. They are as different in visual style as gray is to a rainbow, as distinct in entertainment approach and mood as Charlie Chaplin is to a Pixar animated film. In both books there is heart and humor and depth and satisfaction. 

Candlewick, 2021

Up first is a remarkable new picture book written and illustrated by the widely admired Jon Klassen, creator of THE ROCK FROM THE SKY. For those who know his award-winning picture book titles, I WANT MY HAT BACK, THIS IS NOT MY HAT, and WE FOUND A HAT (who doesn't know and love these?) this latest book will feel both familiar and entirely new. With a vertical trim size and 96 pages (!) this is a minimal-text/sometimes wordless book that invites zen-like reflection on our place in the world.

 Don't let that description mislead you. The three hat-wearing characters will feel like old friends. Turtle, armadillo, and rattlesnake inhabit five short stories that, cumulatively, involve danger and suspense, confusion, dreaming and time travel, and an odd but menacing space alien. There is enough dry humor, side eye, jealousy and surprise to fill a Broadway stage, minus the action, music, and dance. Seriously, this is a dram-edy of the highest order, and one that will have kids enthralled and eager to read it again and again. 

I'm convinced it will also have adults reflecting and connecting with their own lives, especially during this Covid year. 

Candlewick, 2021

Next on the picture book journey is THE BEST PLACE IN THE WORLD, written and illustrated by Petr Horacek. One glance at this cover will reveal that it is a distinctly different art style, in color, emotion, and relationships. While Klassen's characters are contained and cautious and hold their own spaces, Horacek's characters seek each other out and nearly spill over with open emotion. In the cover image alone, the relationship of Bear and Hare approximate a glowing heart space between them. 

Klassen stories are subtle and subdued, despite being layered and deep. Turtle and Armadillo and Rattlesnake, by their very nature, in nature, pull back, warn others away, and tuck themselves apart from the wider world. Horacek's characters are direct and daring and eager to explore, to find and feel and flex the power of seeking self.

In this story, Hare is joyously appreciative of the marvelous meadow in which he lives. And yet, what else might await them in a wider world? What if something better is "out there" waiting? Each of Hare's friends explains what makes the meadowland a perfect place to live, the BEST for them. Hare understands, but simply MUST see for himself. Within his journeys, he finds marvels for which he had hoped, in each case imagining how his meadow friends would appreciate it, too. And after many discoveries and considerations, without explicit statements, Hare heads home. Those ever-returning thoughts of what would make his friends happy draw him back, with a recognition that it is those friends, in their shared, lovely spaces, that determine the BEST place in the world for Hare. 

There are so many ways in which these two books are "different" and could certainly offer opportunities to compare and contrast. And yet they both, deeply and truly, offer open invitations to discuss themes and philosophical assumptions and reasons for internal impulses. 

Whether using these with older students to model higher level analysis or with art students to discuss matching technique and story purposes, or in any other reflective way, please do the creators the well-earned honor to share the books for what they are meant to be, first and foremost: entertaining and engaging stories with intention and beauty and grace and humor. 

Only then should they be considered, piece by piece. As always, with any works of art, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.And both of these new picture books are works of art.