Margot ZemachReseñas

A delightful retelling of a Yiddish folktale. A man, unhappy with his poverty and his crowded home, asks his Rabbi for advice. The Rabbi calmly tells him to begin bringing animals from the stable into the house. The man obeys, and after suffering through this worsened situation again appraoches the Rabbi for advice. The Rabbi advises him the same. The patterns repeats a few times, until finally the Rabbi tells the man to return all as it was to start with. The man goes away content and happy with his life, having experienced what would be worse.

Retold in a simple, rhythmic style with understated humor. The illustrations are dynamic and similarly humorous.

B-Day Present for Mx. He enjoys this book about being thankful for what you have (or don't have). To date Ms, hasn't been around when we've read it,

Great book to teach how to love and be grateful for what you have, no matter the condition "it could always be worse".

Super cute little book with some nice art. It seems like a very good book to read aloud to children.

IT COULD ALWAYS BE WORSE is a witty Jewish tale and a Caldecott Honor book. The book tells of a man who is unhappy in his crowded home with his family. He consults with his Rabbi. After several visits, the Rabbi cleverly teaches the man to appreciate what he has. In the end, his conditions are the same as they were in the beginning of the story, but the man finds himself much happier. The illustrations in the book are very detailed and nicely done.

I had conflicting feelings about this story. It has a really good plot and lesson though. I read this story when I was little while I was learning Spanish. I think that bilingual version of this book would be great for ESL students. I think on one hand, the book shows that people can treat you badly and be lazy. On the other hand, it shows that if you are willing to put in the tie and hard work, then you deserve what you worked for. It shows students that they get in return what they give in the first place.

I have conflicting feelings about this book. In the text the hard work of the hen is highlighted. I like that although the hen does not get help she does not give up on herself and pushed through to harvest all the wheat. All of her friends refused to help with the process at all. When the hen was able to make the bread she did not share with her friends. Initially I agreed, they did not do work, they should not get any bread. When reading this to a child you do not want them to think just because someone doesn't help you should be rude to them. An eye for and eye makes the whole world blind. The dialogue in the book was wonderful. It highlighted repetition and emotions of the characters. Each friend would repeat "Not I," when asked to help. When the hen spoke you could feel the frustration when they all tried to eat her bread. "Oh, no, you won't!" Although this book highlights possibly bad behavior I believe it to be a fun story to read to kids. You can use this to show that you should help others.

In my opinion, I would rate this book as a 6/10. This book is an easy read and would be good for students who are just beginning to read books themselves. I liked this book because I think it relayed the overall message in a way for students to understand, by creating the same style organization throughout the entire book. However, I just didn't really feel engaged in the book, which is why I didn't necessarily love it. One thing I enjoyed most about the book, was the illustrations on each page. They clearly depicted what was happening on each page, which would allow for the students to easily understand what was occurring. I also really like the language use in this book. The writer chose to use very descriptive words that really made a vivid image in my head as I was reading. For example, the book stated, " All summer the wheat grew taller and taller. It turned from green to gold, and at last it was time for the wheat to be harvested". In this example, the author uses great descriptive words to describe what is happening in the story. The author also made a clear point in describing the overall message of the story. The message of the story is that the little red hen put all of her hard work and effort into harvesting the grain and making the bread, but whenever she asked for help, all of her friends said no. In the end of the book, when her friends asked for some of the bread she had made she said no because no one had helped her. I am conflicted with this message, because I don't agree that if someone is mean to you that you should be mean back. Therefore, this is another reason why I did not enjoy this book and wouldn't include it in my classroom.

I think the author of this book is successful in making the language of the book lively. She begins the book with a problem and adds to the problem little by little, making the problem even more ridiculous and hilarious as the story goes on. With the resolution of the problem also comes an important lesson brought to the reader. I illustrations were hilarious and I really enjoyed the book.

This is a story about a poor man and his family who seek the help of a rabbi to make their living conditions better. Throughout the story, the rabbi gives the poor man bad advice and instead makes the poor mans living situation worse. However in the end, the rabbi tells the poor man to undo everything that he has told the poor man to do. Without hesitation the poor man’s living conditions go back to how it was in the first place and is now more grateful than ever. This story is a good way to teach students about being grateful for what they have.

be grateful for what you have and things can get worse

The setting of this books starts out in a very crowded house where there is no peace and quiet. The lack of personal space creates tension throughout the family. The Rabbi suggested to one by one bring animals into the house. After the house is completely full begin to start taking the animals out. The house will soon feel spacious again. For this the students can work together to see if they can brainstorm different ideas about ways to solve the conflict in the story. This story can be used for older grades such as second through fifth grade.

I found this book to be charming and humorous. I enjoyed the well organized plot of the story, providing readers with the information necessary the understand the circumstances and motives revealed later in the story. The characters in the story, a poor working couple, are very believable despite finding themselves in an unbelievable situation. While working in the ofrest, the couple came across an imp caught under a tree, and after rescuing him they were granted three wished. The combination of realistic fiction and fantasy made this book entertaining for readers of all ages. This book follows the organization of a fable with an important lesson to be taught: be careful what you wish for. The story had humorous aspects, one of which being the wife accidentally wishing for sausages to hang from her husbands nose. However, I found the bigger message of the story to be cliche and unoriginal.

A poor unfortunate man visits a rabbi because his house is rowdy and full of fighting. The rabbi tells him to bring various animals into house which causes a ruckus, but once the animals are gone, the house has a relative peace to it.

In spite of whatever it is you are going through, you should still count your blessings because somewhere, someone else is facing much harder circumstances. Nonetheless, this Yiddish folktale is about gratitude and when an unfortunate man follows advice from his Rabbi, his life takes an unexpected turn.

This Yiddish folktale depicts gratitude in an uproarious light. When an unfortunate man follows the advice from his Rabbi, his life seems to go from bad to worse – or does it?

I thought this was a very good book! I liked this book for its illustrations and language. I liked the illustrations because it really helped with the mood of the book. For example, when the hen was getting mad, we could see just how mad and frustrated that hen was. This was important when the hen was harvesting the wheat. I did not know what harvesting wheat was or how much work it took. From the different illustrations, I was able to see that harvesting wheat and threshing is hard work and very time consuming. I also liked the pattern in this book. I liked that the answer to each task the hen asked the friends’ answer was no. This lead the book to have suspense especially when the hen asked “who wants to eat?” and did not ask “who wants do this?” I also liked the pattern in this book because it was easy to follow even when I was unclear what harvesting and threshing was.
In conclusion, I believe the author, Margot Zemach, was trying to emphasize to not let other people use you. If people are not helpful they should not be able to participate or experience the success of that outcome.

Fantasy
Age appropriateness: primary, intermediate
Media: Watercolor
This book is about a little red hen who is trying to feed her children. The little red hen asks her friends, the pig, the goose and the cat if they would help her harvest, plant, and take the grain to the mill to be made into flour. But the pig, goose, and the cat refuse to help. That does not stop the little red hen from doing what needs to be done. When the little red hen uses the flour and makes bread she does not share it with her friends because they did not help her. Instead the little red hen shares it with her children.
This is a good fantasy book because it teaches kids the power of helping others through a little red hen having to harvest, plant and take the grain to the mill herself. This book does a great job of showing how helping others is a good thing and that if you do not help others you should not expect to get any of what they are making. This is a good fantasy because in the book the Hen is planting grain, harvesting it, and then takes it to the mill to be made into flour. Then when the Hen has the flour she goes home and makes bread. All of this cannot happen in real life, a Hen cannot talk, bake, harvest, and plant. This is why it is a good fantasy.

This is an excellent book that will teach students that even though it may not seem like it, the situation could always be worse. This book has excellent illustrations and a wonderful storyline. Student will enjoy reading about the troubles of the man, and this book could spark a wonderful classroom discussion.

A particularly lively, Easy Reader version of one of my favorite tales. Nothing new - but gosh I do sometimes empathize with her when she's slaving away and they're playing cards!

This book is filled with individual stories and rhymes. There was not one individual theme in this book. I enjoyed the stories and their meanings. I also loved the illustrations. It rhymed just enough to make me giggle.

I really enjoyed this book, from start to finish. First, I loved the illustrations. They took up more than a page, and on the side of the book where the text was, there was just enough space for the text, and surrounding were the illustrations. They were detailed and improved the story telling. Specifically, on the page where the “imp” was first introduced, the illustration was very helpful, as I had no idea what an “imp” was, and not even a clue as to what it would otherwise look like. The picture showed a little blue elf-like creature with a tail and horns, laying on the ground in distress while its tail was stuck under the fallen tree. My favorite characteristic of the book was the plot. The book was about a man and wife whom hunted and grew all their food, but they never had enough to keep them from staying hungry. One day in the woods they came across an imp in distress, and because they freed the imp from the tree, the imp granted them 3 wishes. This brings me to the next great part of the book, the language. After the man and woman realized they have 3 wishes at their disposal, they discussed what they were going to wish for. “We might wish for fine clothes and silver. We might wish for a great chest of jewels... we might wish to never go hungry again..” but because it was dinner time and the man was hungry, he says, “but now I just wish we had a pan of sausages for dinner.” And sure enough a hot pan of sizzling sausage shows up on the table. Of course that was an accident and he really wanted to wish for something more substantial, so the wife argues with him and says, “Oh, you fool! Look what you’ve done! How I wish those sausages were hanging from your big nose!” and as you can imagine, there was a long string of sausages hanging from his nose. The language in the book was very comical and gave the book a very light, fun feeling. I found myself giggling as I read his wife wishing a long string of sausages were hanging from her husband’s nose. The book ended happily, and they used their third and final wish to wish that his nose was back to normal, and nonetheless they had a big pot of hot sausage that night for dinner. Although we know that this book is not realistic, it encourages the idea of ‘be careful what you wish/ask for’. Depending on the grade level of the reader, they might not understand that concept, but this book gives a good opportunity to explain what that means, and explain to children the importance of their words.

There are many reasons why I liked this book. The first reason is the illustrations. They were very colorful and interesting. The illustrations seemed like watercolor paintings that depicted the story very well. It showed the hen doing everything by herself because no one would help her. The second reason I liked the book is because of the issues it makes children think about. In this book, none of the hen's friends would help her so she does all of the work by herself. Then when she is done with all of the work her friends want to eat the bread she made. She did not let them because they did not help her. This pushes students to think about working as a team and sharing. The main idea of this story is to teach children that if they want something they have to work for it instead of it being given to them for no reason.

I really enjoyed reading this book because I used to read it may times when I was younger! This old, classic tale of a couple being granted three wishes for doing a good deed demonstrates to the readers that when given the opportunity, don't be greedy or hasty to take it without thinking about it first. The couple in the story ended up wasting their three wishes because they were hasty and then angry with one another. But then they realized that they were appreciative of what they had. That is the other lesson/message that the readers can gain from the story. Appreciating what you have is essential, especially for elementary school students. This book/story will allow students to have discussions with their classmates as well as their teacher and parents about what it means to appreciate what you have.

In my opinion, this is a great book for a few reasons. First, the writing is engaging and secondly, the language flows with a pattern. For example, one page has the Hen facing a conflict, asking for help, and her friends always replying: "not I," said the goose. "not I," said the cat. Not I," said the pig, followed by the next page with Hen always responding" Then I'll do it myself." There is a sense of predictability within the patterns, yet readers will remain engaged and feel suspense wanting to find out if any animals will help the hen. The big idea for this tale is if you want something, you must work hard for it.