The Tortoise and the Hare

S Stevens, J. (1984). The Tortoise and the Hare. New York, NY: Holiday House.

Brief Annotation: This classic story is told wonderfully through Janet Stevens adaptation and illustrations. The Tortoise is a turtle who has many friends. He is a hardworking and very nice animal. The Hare is a rabbit who liked to tease Tortoise and he bullies him into racing him. Tortoise is encouraged by his friends and works out and gets ready for the big race. Hare assumes the race will be a breeze, and along the road he makes many stops an gets very lazy. He even takes a nap at the end, leaving room for Tortoise to sneak past him and win the race! At the end of the book the words HARD WORK AND PERSERVERANCE BRING REWARD explain the true theme, one that's worth remembering.

Genre: Fable

Grade Level: Pre-K- Grade 1

Readers who will like this: Advanced first grade readers would enjoy this book, because it still has great pictures and a common story, but anyone listening to the book would enjoy it as well. As a teacher it would be a great one to read if you had a group of younger students, especially if they have not heard the story before. It's a classic and a well loved book.

Response/Rating (1-4) 4, The Tortoise and the Hare is a classic book with a great theme. It explains how important it is to persevere to give everything your very best. I think that the pictures in this book are really great too and the length is a great length for a read aloud time.

One question you would ask before a read aloud: “Who do you think would win a race between a turtle and a rabbit?”