Adventure in Big Thicket

This is my boy's (ages 10, 7 & 3) favorite book for me to read them...beautiful writing and great stories with a cast of interesting and funny animal characters. I wish Gire had written more along this line...I would buy them all.

This is a wonderful book for reading aloud. Each character has its own "voice." Our children were fascinated by the dialectic speech of the characters. As previously commented, they will insist that you "do the voices." My wife read the book in class to her 4th graders and they loved it as well. Each story shows how the "easy way" often leads to trouble. This is a book of fables. It is supposed to be moralistic and didactic. This is Aesop's fables with giggles.

Though written for younger children, my 12 year old daughter still asks her Daddy to read these wonderful stories, reminding him to "do the voices". I enjoy listening to him read them. My husband, a middle school teacher, uses the stories in his Drama class. He likes the book because the characters are so fully developed that the beautiful illustrations are almost unnecessary. Children can relate to the characters, and the situations in which they find themselves. The tales spring to life, and young people learn important lessons about life, choices, and relationships.

I picked up this book about 5 years ago and read it to my oldest son who was 7 years-old at the time. He loved it. It went back on the shelf and I just finished reading it to my middle son who recently turned 7. He also loved it and begged me to read him a chapter each night.I couldn't disagree more strongly with the Horn Book review of this work. Maybe it is a little politically incorrect by today's oppressive, fun-removing standards, but the kids love it and it just happens to subtly teach them some important lessons in life. The so-called violence is far less than what one would see on the average children's cartoon -- and it isn't even visual! Speaking of the visuals, the illustrations are beautiful, and both of my sons loved looking at them and trying to identify which character was which. The dialogue -- which is the key to any good story -- is engaging and fun, with each animal speaking in the vernacular of the South, colloquialisms, and all. Each chapter ends with a "moral" to the story, if you will -- a proverb by Solomon. If you can find this book, I suggest that you buy it or borrow it, and try it out on your kids. Don't let the thought/content police deter you from sharing the joy of reading some interesting and funny stories to your children. I have a fifteen month-old, and when he turns about 7, I'm sure I'll read it to him as well.

Beautifully illustrated, this book of several stories will delight both the reader and the child with humor, wisdom and the cutest characters. You will love Hamhock, Bean, Crab Apple and others as you follow their misadventures in the big thicket.