Three Rolls, One Donut

by Mirra Ginsburg, Anita Lobel (Illustrator)

A collection of brief tales, riddles, and fables from various parts of Russia.

Genres: Picture Books

1 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1970

About the author

Mirra Ginsburg was a Jewish Russian-American translator of Russian literature, a collector of folk tales and a children's writer. Born in Bobruisk (then part of the Russian Empire, now part of modern-day Belarus) in 1909, she moved with her family to Latvia, then to Canada, before they settled in the United States. Although she won praise for her translations of adult literature, including the Master and Margarita (1967) by Mikhail Bulgakov and We (1972) by Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin, she is perhaps most celebrated for her contributions to children's literature. She collected and translated a vast array of folktales from the Russian tradition, as well as Siberian and Central Asian traditions. Ginsburg died in 2000.

Reviews

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This picture book contains a collection of short tales, fables, and riddles from Russian.

Items included:
• "Rabbit Fat"
• "How the Peasant Helped His Horse"
• "How the Peasant Divided the Geese"
• "Which Eye Is Blind"
• "The Best Liar"
• "The Traveler's Tale"
• "The Lost Penny"
• "The Golden Key"
• "Pete"
• "The Hole"
• "Two Friends"
• "The Bubble, the Straw, and the Shoe"
• "Take Four from Four"
• "Hatchet Gruel"
• "The Peasant and the Bear"
• "Plans"
• "Riddles"
• "A Thousand Thoughts"
• "The Lion, the Fish, and the Man"
• "The Cat and the Tiger"
• "Two Stubborn Goats"
• "The Jolly Sparrow"
• "The Valiant Lion"
• "The Fox and the Thrush"
• "The Snake and the Fish"
• "The Braggart"
• "Lies"

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mirra Ginsburg, a well known translator of Russian to English chose a number of very very short folktales and riddles from Russian and Slavic culture for this one of her first titles to be published. Anita Lobel illustrates these tales in what appears to be pen and ink sketches and there are sketches for every tale. The only illustration in color is the front cover of the book jacket.
Here is one of the riddles:

It’s not a bush, but it has leaves,
It’s not a shirt, but it is sewn
It’s not a slave, but it is bound,
It’s not a man, but it tells a story.

[Allison]

These fables are very short. Some are more like little jokes to me. It would be neat to read a small passage and discuss it with students.