Across the Stream

by Mirra Ginsburg, Nancy Tafuri (Illustrator)

A hen and her chicks and a duck and her ducklings star in a bedtime tale of a bad dream and an amazing rescue

Genres: Picture Books, Animals, Birds, Childrens, Storytime

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

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

[Leslie R]

Louise's first two syllable word was "chicken" because of this book.

[Katlin Sims · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very cute book about three chicks and a hen who all had a bad dream. One night they were sleeping and they all dreamed that a fox came to get them. So they ran away from their nest and came to a stream where three ducklings and their mother were swimming. The duck and her ducklings helped the hen and her chicks get across the stream by letting them ride on their backs. The hen and her chicks made it safely to the other side and left the bad dream behind.

This book could be great to start a discussion about bad dreams. As part of an activity, you could have the children draw a picture of a bad dream or something that scares them, and where they could go to get away from something that scares them - like the chickens in the story did.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a picture book classic. With minimal text, Ginsburg tells a powerful story of a hen and her chicks escaping a fox. It is worth noting that the word "fox" is never used, but the visual message is clear. The rescue is ingenious and satisfying. A wonderful book to share with the youngest listeners.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a simple story with big, colorful pictures and a short, rhyming narrative. Our youngest brought this book home from her first grade class to practice her reading. She read it by herself and then to me. We enjoyed reading this book together.

[Jillian Reed · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book uses rhymes to describe how the duck and ducklings helped the chickens escape from their bad dream that they left at the other side of the stream. Lesson of the story is that friends can help you through hard times.

[Amy Burch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chickens and ducklings play together. This book had a good moral of the story: just because someone doesn't look like you doesn't mean you can't be friends.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Duck Storytime

[Deborah Harris]

AR Quiz No. 7201 EN Fiction
Accelerated Reader Quiz Information IL: LG - BL: 1.7 - AR Pts: 0.5
Accelerated Reader Quiz Type Information AR Quiz Types: RP, RV

[Sailor Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I really liked it because they ran."

[Owlsome Readers]

AR Level: 1.7
Points Value: 0.5
AR Quiz No. 7201

[Phoenix · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super simple book and great and big illustrations. We are reviewing rhyming in school so this has helped. Phoenix loves the hen riding on the duck at the end.

[Linda Branich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Large, easy-to-read print, cute illustrations, and phonetically simple words with few sight words written in poetic form, make this a charming EARLY READER about a bad dream

[Siomara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book would be great for students learning how to count.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ellie read this to mama

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple story with lovely illustrations of a mother chicken hen who outwits a fox with the help of a duck hen.

[Richie Partington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richie’s Picks: ACROSS THE STREAM by Mirra Ginsburg and Nancy Tafuri, ill. Greenwillow, 1982, 32p., ISBN: 978-0-688-10477-1

“Rock me on the water
Sister, won’t you soothe my fevered brow”
-- Jackson Browne (1971)

“Susan Hirschman’s career...spanned nearly fifty years, starting in 1954 with a secretarial job in the children’s department at Alfred A. Knopf...Hirschman started Greenwillow Books at William Morrow in 1974, and in 1999 the imprint was absorbed into HarperCollins when it purchased Morrow.”
-- from Publisher’s Weekly, “Hirschman to Retire” (3/5/2001)

“A hen and three chicks had a bad dream. They ran and came to a deep, wide stream.”

In the late 1980s, when I was studying early childhood education and immersing myself in the picturebooks of the era, Greenwillow Books featured a bold and recognizable picture book style. It repeatedly made its mark as a highly-respected and celebrated brand. Books published under Hirschman’s imprint were recognized six times by Caldecott awards committees in the 1980s, more than any other publisher.

One evening, a hen and her three chicks escape the henhouse as a fox enters. She and her three chicks encounter a duck and three ducklings. The duck and ducklings give the chicken and chicks a high-spirited ride across the stream, and that bad dream--the fox--was left on the other side.

Expressive characters, including an adorable fox, and a bunch of additional critters scattered amidst the illustrations, make this one that little kids love to pore over long after the reading is completed.

While ACROSS THE STREAM was not an award winner (illustrator Nancy Tafuri subsequently won a Caldecott Honor for HAVE YOU SEEN MY DUCKLING?) this one was a favorite circle time read-aloud among my 3- and 4-year-old students. It remains one of my favorites of the 1980s.

Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.pbworks.com
https://www.facebook.com/richiespicks/
richiepartington@gmail.com

[Molly Cluff (Library!) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very short, cute, classic feeling book (I love the Nancy Tafuri illustrations!). A chicken and her chicks get a ride across the river with some ducks to escape a fox. The old-school style is really heartwarming.

[Caontie McNeal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a short read and would be fun to read in circle time.

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chickens riding on ducks backs! How funny!

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hen and her three chicks had a bad dream, so they ran to the stream where they got help. Very nice story in few words and great illustrations for young children.

[Meredith · Rating 2 out of 5]

A hen and her three escape from a fox across a stream.

[Sam Schreiber · Rating 5 out of 5]

So lit fr

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Copyright 1982
This is a brief story of a hen and her chicks and how they escape a fox. This is a sparse vocabulary with a few rhyming sentences. The illustrations depict the story elements well and with one hearing many preschoolers will be able to “read” this story for themselves using the excellent visuals.

Well this happens to be the third year in a row that I have looked at this title. I love Tafuri’s illustrations of farm animals, this time I was especially looking at the fox and the frog, especially the frog from the rear as it is jumping, so many times the frog is just sitting there.
Also I admired the work of the late Mirra Ginsburg did in collecting Russian folktales. Mirra Ginsburg was a native of what now is Belarus and immigrated to Canada and then the USA.

[Hillary]

Number and counting concepts