From: Rita Auerbach <ritaauerbach>
Date: Sun, 25 Jan 1998 15:24:21 -0500

I agree with Karen that it is often wonderful to have many variants of the same story. More and more I find teachers asking for these, and I have always enjoyed comparing variants with students. They regularly find comparisons that I would have missed, and I think the experience helps them become more astute readers and observers.

Although the text of the Hunterman and the Crocodile was not at issue in choosing it for the CSK illustration honor, one of the things that I personally enjoyed about the book was that it offered an African version of a story I knew best from India--The Tiger, the Brahman and the Jackal--with an added emphasis on the importance of living in harmony with nature.

While I'm on the subject of comparisons, I wanteed to suggested that everyone who was stunned by Karen Hesse's Out of the Dust, and fascinated by its free-verse format, will want to read Virginia Euwer Wolff's Make Lemonade. Written for an older audience, it is the first book in which I encountered this technique. The language is riveting.

Rita Auerbach, Librarian, Manorhaven School, Port Washington, N.Y.
Received on Sun 25 Jan 1998 02:24:21 PM CST