Customer Reviews

Four Good Friends (Beginning to Read-Fairy Tales and Folklore)

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If you want to teach your children that they can be happy without working then this is the book to get. In my opinion, we are all responsible for our own happiness and feeling sorry for yourself then going on to say that you are happy cause you don't have to work at it is insane. Not a good story for young children!

I was racking my brain trying to remember where I had read this story before. Turns out -- and no, I had to do research, couldn't recall where I had read it before -- that Margaret Hillert drew upon an old Grimm's fairytale, "The Bremen Town Musicians" for "Four Good Friends".

I like this story because it's a little different from the usual almost overly cheerful primers that small fry are given. It's starts out sad, with the four animals crying, but soon gets on to the adventure and the burglars.

What I don't like is that this adventure is not going to make sense to children if the original story hasn't already been read to them. For example, in this book the robbers run away, but it's not at all clear why.

THE SKINNY:::
This is a wonderful primer BUT you are going to have to read the children one of the many versions of "The Bremen Town Musicians" that are out there first. After you do that, this book will make sense and children are really going to get excited about being to re-tell the story themselves (albeit in much simpler language :)

a Pam T mini-review
mom/blogger
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