Customer Reviews

The Little Scarecrow Boy

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The little scarecrow boy wants badly to go out into the fields and scare the crows, but he's too young and inexperienced and not fierce enough. His father says, "Wait till you grow," but the boy is impatient to try out the six terrible faces that he is taught. Once he learns them, he decides to run away so that he can try out his new skills, but the crow is not afraid as he uses each face in succession, becoming more out of breath as he continues to run after each attempt. Finally, with the sixth and fiercest face - success! His father arrives just in time to proudly see him scare the crow away and the scarecrow boy becomes the fiercest scarecrow in the world.

The close up illustrations of the scarecrow boy's face when he's scaring seem disproportionately large (similar in magnitude to the smiling face on the cover), although it allows the reader to better distinguish between the six degrees of scary faces.

I just read this book to my first grade class and they loved it. It's a great book to introduce the idea of never giving up and feeling proud after a job well done.

"The Little Scarecrow Boy" is a good choice for a fall read in your classroom. It lends itself well to expansion curriculum projects. Lesson themes may include scarecrows, farming, family relationships, emotions, etc. The repeatative text is enjoyable and predictable. I have read it to both a 4-year-old and a 7-year-old class, they all loved it! The text is simple enough for a 7-year-old to read aloud as well. I also liked the fact that this book did not incorporate any "Halloween" themes.

This gentle tale of the value of perseverence is in the best Margaret Wise Brown tradition. Without talking down to young children, she manages to convey the importance of stick-to-itiveness and the great love a young scarecrow boy has for his father. Trying the best he can to live up to his father's work ethic and talents, the little scarecrow boy tries and tries to scare the crows away. Although he fails over and over again, he does eventually succeed and sees that not only is his father proud of him--he is proud of HIMSELF. This is a great lesson quietly told--it's not preachy or high-handed in any way.

Brown's charming tale is greatly bolstered by the color-saturated illustrations of David Diaz. These have a lovely, soft 1930s look that reminds me very much of the illustrations in the original Raggedy Ann and Andy books. I especially like the way Diaz pulls back his perspective on the last page so that you really see why the little scarecrow boy feels, happily, that all is right with the world.

Margaret Wise Brown has, through this book, shared with parents how to accept and assist children wanting to take risks and explore life. This is also a wonderful book to use as a way of explaining adult jobs to children. It is a way of aleviating children's fear of separating from parents when they go off to school. The author has shared her humor, creativity and I suspect her experiences. This picture book is also considered a predictable book, because there is one verse that is repeated. Enjoy this delightful lighthearted story and see if you can relate to it or to other books that you have read.

My students loved this story and then making scary faces for each other. This lead to a great discussion about what is scary? Every child had a different point of view.

My 5 year old daughter loved this book so much I had to read it twice in a row. Knowing it was from the library, she twice said we needed to buy a copy.

This book helps children realize that they sometimes must wait to be old enough or big enough to do certain things. It presents the opportunity to discuss why adults sometimes say children cannot do whatever they want to do. It also teaches that they must keep trying. I like the illustrations--so colorful! Simple to understand and cute.

The crows end up chasing the little scarecrow novice, and as he runs away from them in lushishly illustated strawy discombobulation, he makes each face he has practiced to scare crows away. But, ironically, not one of his "scarecrow faces" does actually scare the crows away, and he is carried away by the big black birds. No, just kidding. He just ends up being saved from the untold fate with the crows by his father. This book definitely gets its "charm" from simplicity, but it works. I read it three times in a row to a three year old in the special needs class today. Nice, simple, autumn themed book-it is.