I really enjoyed Eric Carle's take on the Brothers Grimm tales. His illustrations are quite unique and fit perfectly with the text. My favorite story was "Hans in Luck" because of this lack of greed and his innocents. I also really enjoyed the facts about the Brothers Grimm at the end of the book. ( )

The author of Tom Thumb, Eric Carle, retells a classic story in a beautiful way and through his illustrations he helps bring each story to life. Eric Carle retells four different Stories-Tom Thumb, The Fisherman and His Wife, Hans in Luck, and The Seven Swabians. Each story all teach us a common lesson to be thankful for what we have in life. I have always been a huge fan of Eric Carle, I often read his other books such as “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and another one of my favorites, “The Mixed-Up Chameleon” to my daycare class. Although I was not very familiar with the original four stories Eric Carle retells, after doing some research it seems as if he stuck to the main plot but adds illustrations that may attract a child’s imagination while reading the stories and avoids details that may be too much for a child to comprehend. Although the stories were cute they are very long and I feel would quickly lose a young reader’s interest. If I were to read one of these stories to my class in the future, I would make sure to include a lot of questions to make sure my class is following the story. ( )

This book is a combination of stories but the main one is obviously Tom Thumb. Tom Thumb represents the desire to explore and be adventurous. He shows what it's like to be grateful and appreciative for what you have. ( )

This book is a collection of four of the lesser known Grimm Brother's tales. The first story is Tom Thumb. This story is about a boy no bigger than a thumb who uses his quick wit to get him out of sticky situations. Tom is able to trick people and animals because of his size to get what he needs. This story is full of irony, all who meet him think that he is incapable because of his size but in reality he is more capable then themselves. The second story is The Fisherman and His Wife, this story is about a poor fisherman who one day catches a magical fish without realizing and lets his go. His wife is furious and tells him to go back and ask for her wishes. Each time the fish complies and each time the fisherman is sent back because he wife is not satisfied. At the end of this story, both the fisherman and his wife are back where they started and live happily. This story is about wanting more and never be satisfied with what you have. The fisherman was okay with the way he was living and his wife was not, he let her push him and eventually they still ended up back where they started. The third story is Hans in Luck, this is a story about Hans a man who worked with a miller for seven years. When he is ready to leave and go back home he asked for his pay. Hans is given a large chunk of gold, on the way home this gets too heavy and he trades the gold for a horse. At this moment Hans thinks he is so very lucky but in reality has been cheated out of a deal. This continues to happen all the way until he ends up returning home with nothing in his pockets and thinks he is the luckiest man alive. This story is full of times when Hans should have realized that he was getting the short end of the stick but he was just happy. The final story is The Seven Swabians, this story is about seven Swabians (German ethnic group) who are terrified of a rabbit. These people are going on adventure to prove how brave and great they are but are soon stopped when they first see a rabbit. This has this so terrified, except for the seventh Swabian who is too tiny to see past the others. After they hide from the rabbit and it flees, the come to a river and try to cross. Again the seventh Swabian is not paying attention and is the only one left alive. Knowing that something has happened, he returns home to tell the story. This is a cute story about now matter how strong you have showed you are, you still have an Achilles's heel, theirs was a rabbit. ( )

Eric Carle retells four different Grimm's tales; Tom Thumb, The Fisherman and His Wife, Hans in Luck, and The Seven Swabians. The first is about a clever boy the size of a thumb, and how he uses his wit to make it home. The second is about a fishman who catches a magical fish that grants him many wishes to make his wife happy. The third is about silly man who starts out trading his wages for a horse, he continues to trade for things of lesser value, but still feels like the luckiest man. The last is about seven Swabians who were afraid of a rabbit, they ran in fear. They were very foolish and end up miss hearing a man and drowning in a river. GENRE: folktale. USES: to teach lessons, good illustrations. MEDIA: collage and acrylics.