Los Tres Chivitos Gruff

by Mary Finch, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen

The three billy goats gruff are hungry for the sweet green grass on the other side of the stream. To get there, they must pass the big hairy troll who lives underneath the bridge and wants to eat them for dinner. Will the billy goats reach the safe side before the hungry troll makes them his next meal? Brought playfully to life by the rich collage illustrations of Roberta Arenson, this lively retelling of a much loved fable will delight children as they cheer on three sprightly billy goats who refuse to let anything stand in their way.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Storytime

Paperback

Published July 12, 2007

Reviews

[Kate Hamblett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three Billy goats cunningly fool the troll under the bridge into not eating them, and manage to get over the bridge to the sweet green grass on the other side. The troll get's greedy and waits for the big billy goat, which promptly kicks him into the water. As the cliche goes: they all lived happily ever after.

This story shows how being greedy doesn't pay off and that that you can get out of situations if you are crafty, although I'm not sure you'd want children using the latter when they haven't done their homework. This story is best for children ages 3-6 to be read to and for 7-8 year old children to read.

This story has a basic structure and is formulaic so it is easier for the children to remember the parts of the story. There is repetitive language used though out and which aids in remembering the phrases that the children use.

It is easy for the children to do the actions along to the story, representing the different sized billy goats and the scary troll. This can make the story come alive for them and allows them to participate and engage with the story.

The book introduces positional and size vocabulary in a fun and easy to understand way. The pictures help this as you can clearly see the troll under the bridge and the billy goats over the top. The illustrations are colourful, vivid and attractive, instantly drawing the eyes. They show exactly what is happening in the story so that there can be no confusion.

The book can easily used in literacy to show the structure of a story. Role play can be used bring it to life as the characters are easy to act out as they have obvious and simple qualities.

The book is a classic that many people know. Reading this book will give them something to talk about with most other people as it is rare that it hasn't been read or heard.

I enjoyed the book as it used exciting language and pictures, some parts can easily be sung making it more memorable and enjoyable.

[Cheriee Weichel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was kid tested on kindergarten and grade ones this week. The illustrations are gorgeous with an Eric Carle feel to them. To be honest, the story itself is one I love to tell or read out loud anyway because it has all kinds of potential for student interaction and it's just so much fun to read the voices of the different characters. This one is especially hilarious because it has the troll singing a hilarious song that I sang and had the children sing with me.
I'm a troll from a deep dark hole
My tummy's getting thinner
I need to eat and goat's a treat
So I'll have you for my dinner.

[Jacqueline Campos · Rating 3 out of 5]

The grass is greener on the other side in this classic story of wit and courage. Three Billy goats want to eat the greener grass across the bridge but first they must get past the mean hairy troll who lives underneath. The illustrations help show the details like how the grass across the bridge is greener, and also help to distinguish the different Billy goats by color.

What I noticed about the book was the repetition of the text with the first and second Billy goat both having the same response for the troll and the troll always singing the same song. This made me wonder how the third Billy goat was going to respond. The message to me of this story is how you can use clever thinking to get out of dangerous situations because even the third Billy goat was clever in pretending he was scared of the troll before he attacked.

This is a great story time book for the classroom because not only is it colorful, but the repetition is fun for children to anticipate. Also, by having dialogue from the characters it allows the reader to create characters with different voices and sing the troll’s songs making it more fun and exciting to follow along with the story. While reading the story you can work on comprehension by stopping after the troll pops out at the second and third Billy goat and ask the class what they think the Billy goats are going to do next and discuss. Then the story can be used to connect to poem writing. For older grades you can have the students write a song they would sing if they were the troll and make it rhyme. In the younger grades you can write the song as a class or make a prompt worksheet where all they have to do is fill in the blanks with silly words to create their song. If appropriate have them fill in the blanks with words that rhyme.

The book has a 530 Lexile/G.R level K.
Appropriate read aloud PreK + and for independent reading by the middle of 3rd grade.

[Nicole Gonzalez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three billy goats wander the green grass lands in search of food. Only to notice that there is nice green grass on the other side of a bridge that is guarded by a mean hairy troll. Roberta Arenson illustrates the characters of the story in a way that is depicts their own personalities with vibrant color.

The book reminds me of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” book. The book reminds me of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” book because it has almost the same color scheme. The pictures are vibrant and colorful in both of the book as wells as they both have a repetition of words in each story. The story makes me feel happy because there is so much color in the book and I think that Life should be colorful. Having color in our lives expresses who we are as a person and our feelings.

The classroom connections that I would teach through this book would be to have the students write about why they think that the troll was aggressive towards the goats. I would also have them write and illustrate a sequel the story about happened to the troll after the goat kicked him. Another activity would be to have the students create their own poems with a rhyming scheme. For the younger grades I would have them draw a picture to show what they think happened to the troll at the end of the story. With the older and younger grades I would go through color meaning and have them describe what color they can relate to.

Lexile: 530
Guided Reading Level: K
Grade Level: pre k-5
Independent Reading: middle of third grade
Appropriate Read Aloud: pre k and up

[Baylee Washburn · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this retelling of the traditionally story, three billy goats trick a mean troll who lives under the bridge so that they can cross over the river and eat the green grass on the other side. This retelling of The Three Billy Goats Gruff uses repetition several times throughout the story. Each of the three goats says the same lines before crossing the bridge to get to the greener grass on the other side of the river. Furthermore, the evil troll who lives under the bridge repeats the same threat to each billy goat as they cross his bridge. This use of repetitive phrases is common in traditional stories such as this one. These repetitive phrases make the story easier to remember, and because traditional literature has such a strong oral history, it makes sense that these stories use repetitive phrases frequently. The repetitive nature of this story and other traditional stories could be helpful to beginning readers. It is easy to become familiar with phrases that are repeated several times throughout a story. This allows a beginning reader to feel successful and begin to recognize specific words and phrases in a text.

[Karishma]

One of my childhood favourites, ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’ is retold by Mary Finch describing three billy goats desire to cross over the trolls bridge to the side where the grass is greener. The repetitive aspects of the storyline make it ideal for young children to follow and the plot can easily be embedded into their minds and the jaunty rhyme for when the troll appears is catchy. It vaguely touches on subjects such as intimidation and bullying but not in an obvious way. The illustrations by Roberta Arenson are large, boldly coloured and quite abstract in appearance captivating the imagination.

Generally I believe this book is suited to early years and initial Key Stage One learners however, there are a couple of phrases within the book which I believe that the target age group may not grasp the underlying context, especially EAL or SEN learners who may take the meanings as being more literal such as, ‘where the grass is greener’ and ‘kicked the troll into the middle of next week’.

On the whole, a great book for starters and ideal for a short class read.

[Burton Wolfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Those darn trolls! I love this book because it tells of three gots just minding their own business when a greedy troll pops his head up and won't let them cross the bridge. With quick thinking the goats talk the troll into waiting until the last goat which will be the biggest and provide the troll the biggest feast. The troll doesn't realize though that the last goat is way too big for him to handle and he gets thrown into the river below the bridge. Awesome book. Another classic that I remember hearing in my childhood.

In a clasroom setting this book has many projects that can be done. The students could each act out a part of the book. Another project is writing a journal that the troll may have kept while waiting for each goat and maybe dream up a recipe he might have had for goat stew!

[Veronica Ruiz]

I chose this book because I remember hearing the story of the three billy goats gruff when I was younger but I didn't quite remember how it ended. As i read the book it was all coming back to me. However, I did not like the ending. The billy goats sell out their older brother to the troll living under the bridge. they tell the troll not to eat them but instead eat there older brother because he more tastier. The troll didn't eat anyone because the last billy goat scared him away. I just found the ending unenjoyable because it did not give a message for the children to learn from. The pictures in this book were pretty and looked painted but I would not read this book to a future classroom.

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I told this classic story with three goat puppets and a monster puppet. It is one of the best stories I've told with props/puppets/flannelboard art. The repetition used as each goat (except the biggest billy goat Gruff) crosses the bridge helps young children develop their narrative skills. The kids thought it was hilarious how I used the biggest billy goat Gruff to knock the monster off the bridge into the "river." I will definitely do this story again.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

It may just be the repetition and simplicity of the plot that make this book so suspenseful as it builds toward the final showdown between goat and troll.
And the moral of the story? "The grass is always greener..." Or, "There's always a bigger goat."
The pictures look almost like those of Eric Carle - Rough, simple and accessible to kids. It makes you feel like you could go make them yourself.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

The imagery was very neat, and is probably really fun for little children, but the story for me was not very interesting. It was a cliche' tale about a troll under a bridge who wont let people or animals pass to the other side. I could probably work for younger aged children but overall I think there may be better books or even better versions of this book.

[Ellen Trujillo · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a fun story to read but there was no moral to it. They basically all threw each other under the bus to get passed the troll until finally one of them butted him off. It was loaded with great imagery and diction, however I would not want to teach it in my classroom.

[Peter Houlihan · Rating 5 out of 5]

remember this tale from my childhood my Dad would come and say good night turn out the light and close my bedroom door but before l went to sleep l would look under my bed to see if the Troll was there then go off to sleep loved it!

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great version of a classic. Barefoot books are just wonderful!

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful bright illustrations for the well known folktale of three goats that trick the troll into letting them all pass over the bridge.

[Amanda Inkenbrandt]

Emily loves these colorful illustrations!

[Asia Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Setting: Green pastures over the bridge
Awards: None
For the classroom: Great book for teaching children folktales and about character traits or adjectives even!