Review by Booklist Review
Gr. 2-4. Like You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Stories to Read Together 0 (2001) ,0 this is an exuberant picture-book read-aloud with short, rhymed, illustrated scenarios for two voices. This time the eight stories are fairy tales--fractured fairy tales--and, as Hoberman says in her introduction, new readers will need to know the originals in order to enjoy the fun. In fact, even seasoned older readers will love the parody. Little Red Riding Hood takes Grandma and a starving wolf to a restaurant for lunch. Goldilocks befriends Baby Bear and takes him home with her to get some porridge (since she ate up all of his). Each story ends with former enemies reading together. Cinderella, for example, invites her gross sisters to live with her in the palace, and they share a good book while the prince reads nearby. Emberley's clear comic-style pictures are hilarious. The big but vulnerable ogre in "Jack and the Beanstalk" has a nose ring and earrings, and a cool Jack in sunglasses and high-heeled boots makes a deal. Great for readers' theater. --Hazel Rochman Copyright 2004 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Conflict resolution seems the theme of You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Fairy Tales to Read Together by Mary Ann Hoberman, illus. by Michael Emberley. As with this duo's first collaboration, the tales take the form of a conversation between a pair of characters (such as the princess and the pea or Jack and the ogre atop the beanstalk), allowing the stories to be read aloud by two people. As the characters quibble over plot points, they ultimately come to terms, in each case deciding, "You'll read to me!/ I'll read to you!" (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-A companion to the popular You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Stories to Read Together (Little, Brown, 2001), this book offers eight fairy tales to inspire a wonderful read-aloud experience for two voices. The color and placement of the text on the pages indicate the different parts. For example, "The Little Red Hen" begins with voice one, in orange type: "I'm Little Red Hen./I planted the wheat./I dug up the soil/In the dust and the heat." Then, voice two, in magenta: "And I am the Duck/And I have to admit/That I did not help her,/Not one little bit." Each tale ends with both participants sharing the refrain: "You read to me./I'll read to you." Hoberman doesn't offer full renditions of the stories, but rather uses the characters and one or two plot elements to create retellings that will entice children and encourage them to keep reading. The selections all have happy endings; in "Jack and the Beanstalk," the ogre agrees to share some of his treasure with the boy, and Little Red Riding Hood takes the Big Bad Wolf out to lunch where they read together while waiting for their food. The verses are rarely forced or faltering, and the two voices join seamlessly together to create a truly delightful reading ensemble. Emberley's humorous illustrations feature expressive characters drawn in pen, watercolor, and pastel, and are liberally scattered throughout the text.-Shelley B. Sutherland, Niles Public Library District, IL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Primary) Like its predecessor You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Stories to Read Together (rev. 11/01), this lap-friendly volume includes a handful of rhyming short stories designed to be read aloud by two readers, each part made clear by placement on the page and contrasting colors of type: orange for one reader, magenta for the other, and robin's-egg blue for unison parts. As before, the verse is sprightly and appropriately conversational, but these are much better stories, each one a mild but clever takeoff on a familiar tale. ""Pea, you made me / Black and blue,"" complains a certain princess; ""I am flat / Because of you,"" retorts the legendary legume. The snappy repartee combined with the well-known characters (among them Goldilocks, Cinderella, and the biggest Billy Goat Gruff) suggests dramatic as well as read-aloud possibilities, but seldom has a potential play script been as delectably illustrated as this one. Emberley's line is elegant as well as funny, the colors are fresh, and with a plenitude of vignettes for each story, still-new readers get plenty of clues. Readers will surely follow Hoberman's urging (in both a preface and the closing lines of each poem) to seek out the original stories--just as soon as they can tear themselves away from these. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
