Little Too Tall

Magic Castle Readers

by Jane Belk Moncure, Linda Hohag (Illustrator), Dan Spoden (Illustrator)

A young ostrich makes friends with some unfriendly jungle animals after warning them of the presence of a dangerous predator

Genres: Fiction, Childrens

32 pages, Library Binding

First published October 1, 1987

About the author

Jane Belk Moncure (born December 1926) is an American author of early childhood non-fiction, fiction and poetry. She has also written under the names Bruce Wannamaker and Jennie Davis.

Moncure has lived in Virginia and North Carolina. She worked in early childhood education for thirty-five years. She lives in Elon College, North Carolina.

Moncure is a creative and prolific author: there are millions of her books in circulation, and they are widely distributed in schools and libraries. Distribution has been primarily through The ChildsWorld, ChildrensPress and Scholastic. Her creations and works include My First Steps to Reading, My First Steps to Math, My First Steps to Science, Word Bird, The Soundbox Books, and The Magic Castle Series. Her works have been translated into British English, Spanish, French, Chinese, and Malay. Belk Library, Elon University holds a collection of all published books by Moncure.

Jane Belk Moncure is a recipient of the C.S. Lewis Award and over the past 20 years, her works were recognized by numerous Awards. Most recently, in 2008, Jane received the Scholastic Teacher's Choice Award for her outstanding contribution to the My First Steps to Learning Program. --from Wikipedia

Reviews

[Alexis Jennings (ASU) · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this children’s book, and ostrich named Little Too-Tall tries to find a friend in the jungle. Parrot said her legs are to tall and can’t fly at all. Monkey says her neck’s too long and she can’t climb a tree. Hippo says her eyes are too big and and can’t swim at all. Little Too-Tall decides to run into the grasslands where she saves Zebra and Antelope from Lion. Zebra and Antelope tell Little Too-Tall that she is perfect the way she is.

When Little Too-Tall talks to parrot, monkey and hippo the literary dialog repeats itself. They all say “My word. You are a funny looking bird.” The animals use onomatopoeia as they say goodbye such as “chee chee” and “toodle-loo”.

This book also leads with the question of what a friend is. It gives a few examples such as “kind, helpful, caring, friendly and nice”. This is a good book for teachers to read because it starts a class discussion at a beginner reader’s level.

[Lea]

In this children’s book, and ostrich named Little Too-Tall tries to find a friend in the jungle. Parrot said her legs are to tall and can’t fly at all. Monkey says her neck’s too long and she can’t climb a tree. Hippo says her eyes are too big and and can’t swim at all. Little Too-Tall decides to run into the grasslands where she saves Zebra and Antelope from Lion. Zebra and Antelope tell Little Too-Tall that she is perfect the way she is.

When Little Too-Tall talks to parrot, monkey and hippo the literary dialog repeats itself. They all say “My word. You are a funny looking bird.” The animals use onomatopoeia as they say goodbye such as “chee chee” and “toodle-loo”.

This book also leads with the question of what a friend is. It gives a few examples such as “kind, helpful, caring, friendly and nice”. This is a good book for teachers to read because it starts a class discussion at a beginner reader’s level.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

great system of books to help teach children to read, each book shows one or more lessons on words, repetition or sound editions. this system has great colorful books with very simple books