The Bremen Town Musicians: And Other Animal Tales from Grimm [Hardcover]

Doris Orgel (Author), Bert Kitchen (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 9, 2004 | Age Level: 5 and up

Six delightful stories, some familiar, some, less so, freshly translated by a noted author and sumptuously illustrated by a renowned artist.

There have been many collections of tales from the Brothers Grimm over the years but few as engaging, and as handsome, as this one. Doris Orgel, who treasured these stories as a child in Vienna, has chosen six of her favorites, all featuring animal characters, and brought them to life for contemporary audiences. In addition to the title story the collection includes The Hare and the Hedgehog, King of the Birds, How the Birds and Beasts Went to War, The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids, and The Fox and the Geese.

The stories are accompanied by marvelously detailed illustrations by Bert Kitchen, who previously collaborated with Ms. Orgel on her collection of Aesop tales, The Lion and the Mouse.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Kindergarten-Grade 3–Six Grimm tales are newly translated and retold in a clear storytelling style that's perfect for reading aloud. The eponymous story leads off, followed by five lesser-known tales including "The Hare and the Hedgehog," "King of the Birds," "When the Birds and the Beasts Went to War," "The Fox and the Geese," and the more familiar "The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids." In an introductory note, Orgel recalls hearing her parents tell the stories in German in the plattdeutsch dialect and explains her method of translating and retelling so as to make the stories appealing for today's readers. At the end of each story she includes a brief comment, sometimes describing minor changes she chose to make. Kitchen'srepresentational paintings are meticulously rendered, softly textured works of art, often putting one in mind of Audubon and in perfect harmony with the tradition of the tales. Each page of text appears against a white background within a narrow frame depicting the landscape in which the story is set. Illustrations done in rich color range from tiny vignettes to full pages, and many are set in ovals or rectangles within the text frame. A one-page biographical sketch of the Grimm Brothers completes the book. A treasure of a treasury.–Marie Orlando, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

PreS-Gr. 2. The creators of The Lion and the Mouse and Other Aesop's Fables (2000) offer another beautifully illustrated collection of tales, this time from the Brothers Grimm. Orgel has selected a group of animal stories, including "The Hare and the Hedgehog," "King of the Birds," and, of course, "The Bremen Town Musicians." Austrian by birth, Orgel translated the stories herself from German texts, and she retells them in the lively language and expert pacing of an experienced storyteller, following each selection with a short note about changes she made to the original. Kitchen contributes exquisitely detailed scenes in soft, muted colors and minute, feathery strokes, rendering remarkably expressive animals and atmospheric landscapes. A fine read-aloud for large or small groups, this will make an excellent addition to elementary classroom units about the Grimms. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Roaring Brook Press; First Edition edition (September 9, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596430109
• ISBN-13: 978-1596430105
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #918,589 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Play that funky music, animals, June 20, 2005

By 

E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Bremen Town Musicians: And Other Animal Tales from Grimm (Hardcover)

Authors tackling Grimm Brother stories today have the difficult task of not always knowing what the best way to present the authors' original material is. If you've ever read a direct translation of a Grimm story then you know that they have a tendency towards violence, black and white terms of good and bad, didacticism, and some truly disgusting scenes. For her part, German born Doris Orgel has just translated and retold some of the Grimm Bros animal tales for the pleasure of young readers everywhere. Orgel recently translated the truly marvelous young adult novel, "Daniel Half Human and the Good Nazi", but her talents extend beyond rote rewrites. "The Bremen Town Musicians" is perhaps one of the smartest, friendliest, and beautiful picture books based on animal Grimm tales available to kids today.

The tales included in this collection are the standard tale of the Bremen Town Musicians, The Hare and the Hedgehog, King of the Birds, When the Birds and the Beasts Went to War, The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids, and finally The Fox and the Geese. Some of these stories will sound familiar. The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids, for example, has only slight variations from the tale of Little Red Riding Hood. As such, it's probably the most violent of the tales (which is impressive when you consider the source). Each story is retold in an accessible and pleasurable way. Orgel, in her preface, notes that she made a few changes "skipping what seemed preachy or obscure, but always very carefully, so as not to harm the 'oldness,' because that's where the magic is". The result is a meticulous series of tales that are just as new an interesting today as they were when first conjured up. Of these stories, "The Fox and the Geese" was undoubtedly my favorite. Not just because I'd never heard the story before, but because there's a great deal of mature joking going on behind the tale.

The illustrations in this tale are by Bert Kitchen and compliment the author's tone perfectly. In many ways, the pictures bear some similarities to those of fellow illustrator Genedy Spirin. They contain muted natural colors and characters with realistic looks. In this book, a donkey looks like a donkey and a fox looks like a fox. Kitchen never makes his characters cartoonish in any way, but that doesn't mean they don't engage in ridiculous behavior. There is a dignity to this book that, in the hands of any other illustrator, could easily have been lost.

If Orgel feels like making a second collection of tales based on Aesop, I wouldn't object a jot. A companion book would be just the thing to accompany such this particular collection. In the meantime, consider pairing this book with, "Anno's Aesop: A Book of Fables" by Mitsumasa Anno for a well-rounded animal-based fable storytime. Both are necessary to any well-rounded children's literary collection.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars long stories. Many, many illustrations, April 8, 2011

By 

M. Heiss (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Bremen Town Musicians: And Other Animal Tales from Grimm (Hardcover)

In this book, you get longer versions of fairy tales, and very large, exciting illustrations to go with them. There's quite a bit of praying in these translations straight from the German - that's nice.

6 fairy tales:

1) The Bremen Town Musicians
2) The Hare and the Hedgehog
3) King of the Birds
4) When the Birds and the Beasts went to War
5) The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids
6) The Fox and the Geese

Gorgeous illustrations, you see every pebble, every whisker, every blade of grass. This would be a wonderful gift for an older child who still loves to be read to (most of them do!)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Animal Stories, October 1, 2008

By 

RD (Upstate NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bremen Town Musicians: And Other Animal Tales from Grimm (Hardcover)

My 4 year old daughter loves animals and loves this book. It's the first book she has with more words than picures, so I'm surprised by how often she requests it. She clearly has a preference for the "Bremen Town Musicians" and "The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids" but I'm happy to have the whole collection. The stories don't have as much violence as the original Grimm tales, but they aren't sugar coated either.