The Tortoise and the Hare

The Tortoise and the Hare

Illustration: Jerry Pinkey

Genre: Traditional Literature

Award: Laura Ingrid Wilder Award 2016

Grade Level: Pre-K to 5^th grade

The classic tale. The tortoise and the hare. This is a wordless book and quite frankly, I don’t think book requires any word. The story begins with all the animals gather together to watch the tortoise and the hare race. Hare, as expected is everyone the choice to win. When the fox signals to go, hare shoots off to a great start while poor tortoise takes his time….slowly. The hare jumps off the tree trunk on the ground. No problem. The tortoise slowly goes up and down the trunk to get to the ground. The hare jumps off the little pond. No problem. The tortoise slowly swims in the pond. The hare is still winning. But then he sees a bunch of cabbage inside the fenced cage. He dugs himself a hole to get to the fence area. When he reaches to the fenced area. He eats all the cabbage and falls asleep. Tortoise is still slowly walking his way towards the finish line. He keeps on walking and walking and walking and passes the sleepy hare. Just when the tortoise is about to finish the race, the hare wakes up. He runs and jumps to catch up the tortoise. But at the end, the tortoise wins even though he was slow and steady!

Jerry Pinkney won the Laura Ingrid Wilder Award 2016 for his beautiful work that he has contributed to children books. The illustration on this book like all of his other books is breathtaking. His artwork really does brings animals to life. The delicate details with watercolor and the shades of all the animals featured in this book are marvelous. The book does feature some words like “slow” and “steady” but other than that it is pretty much all illustration. An excellent book!

Thoughts:

I envy Jerry Pinkney. I wish I was as patient and when it comes to watercolor. This book has some fantastic illustration that from the start to the end. It just mesmerizes you. I can use this book to engage student on their version of the story. I could ask the question like “what do you think is happening in this story”. Since it is wordless, it will be great to listen to what the students will come up just by looking at the illustration!