The Three Billy Goats Gruff - S. Childs

The Three Billy Goats Gruff is a classic tale for children that has been around for years. Though it was one of my books as a child, it was not my favourite story as I was a little bit scared. My son loves the story though and it certainly seems popular with children. I have also seen the story used many a time in puppet shows as it is well known and noises can be used to mimic the stamping on the bridge.

The Book.
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...as a story book for the parents to read to the child as there is a good storyline. It can also be used for the child to read as the writing is clear and easy to understand. I would not recommend it for learning to read though as there are a few difficult words in for someone just starting. Words like frightened, gobble, troll, skipped, thundered etc. would not be in the reading vocabulary of young children just starting to read, their reading would ... more

The Three Billy Goats Gruff is a classic tale for children that has been around for years. Though it was one of my books as a child, it was not my favourite story as I was a little bit scared. My son loves the story though and it certainly seems popular with children. I have also seen the story used many a time in puppet shows as it is well known and noises can be used to mimic the stamping on the bridge.

The Book.
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The Three Billy Goats Gruff is perfect for infant school. It can be used as a story book for the parents to read to the child as there is a good storyline. It can also be used for the child to read as the writing is clear and easy to understand. I would not recommend it for learning to read though as there are a few difficult words in for someone just starting. Words like frightened, gobble, troll, skipped, thundered etc. would not be in the reading vocabulary of young children just starting to read, their reading would need to be more established. It is ideal for around 6 years of age I would say, though is still good to read to prior to then.

There are 2 or 3 short paragraphs on each page. Each page has a colour picture. The illustrations are nice, helping to explain each stage of the story clearly.

It is a little hardback book, costing around £2. There are 24 pages if you count both sides, only one half of the page having writing on. Something that I have noticed is, most childrens books don`t seem to have page numbers on them, at least not the ones I have reviewed.

The Story.
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The story is about 3 Billy Goats Gruff. I have never really liked the name Gruff for some reason, I think it makes them sound fierce and they are not. The 3 goats have obviously eaten all of the grass where they are and they would like to cross the bridge over the river where they think the grass is greener. They look like wild mountain goats so they are not enclosed in actual fields and after roaming they stumble accross the river which is preventing them from reaching the greener grass. The fierce and ugly troll won`t let them cross the bride. Every time he heard footsteps on the bridge going trip trap (this is when the puppet show may come in), he would jump up and gobble up who was trying to cross.

The 3 goats were desperate to eat the grass as it was the best they had ever seen, they must have been really hungry. The goats were all different sizes.

The first little goat went first, trip trap trip trap. The troll threatened to gobble him up but he told him that the next goat would be bigger.

The second slightly bigger goat did the same, trip trap, trip trap. The troll threatened to gobble him up but he persuaded him to wait for the bigger one.

The third, big, billy goat gruff came next. The troll threatened to gobble him up but the goat said he would gobble him up. He ran at him with his horns and hit him with them, tossing him into the river which carried him straight away.

The 3 Billy Goats Gruff were all able to enjoy the grass and get fat and no-one was ever afraid to cross the bridge again.

Is it Enjoyable?
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I like the book as a child but I was a bit scared of the troll. It made it a good story though when the goats were able to defeat him. I liked the goats but I prefered the small ones. The big horns on the bigger goat were a bit scarey, especially as they managed to throw the troll into the river. I don`t like any physical violence and as a child I think this could be a bit frightening knowing that the troll was going to be thrown into the river by painful horns. The troll is the nasty one so it serves him right, but it was still frightening knowing that someone may get hurt.

My son is not scared of it at all.

Moral.
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I asked my son what he thought the book meant. He thought it was saying don`t be shy. It is also encouraging children not to allow themselves to be bullied if at all possible, to try to stand up for themselves. The goats were thoughtful, trying to outwit the troll, which they did. The bigger goat was able to stand up for himself and the other two so by working as a team, they were able to receive positive reinforcement with as much grass as they could eat.

It also shows that the grass IS greener on the other side, at least in fiction!  

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