#16 The Bremen Town Musicians

Title:  The Bremen Town Musicians: and Other Animal Tales from Grimm

Author:  Doris Orgel

Illustrator: Bert Kitchen

Publisher:  Roaring Brook Press

Copyright: 2004

Pages:  39

Genre/Category: Traditional Literature

I chose this book because it has several animal tales by the Brothers Grimm, though retold by another author. This book includes the story of the Bremen Town Musicians, and five other stories. In the story The Bremen Town Musicians, a cat, a dog, a donkey, and a rooster run away from home due to various reasons. They set out to the town of Bremen to make a name for themselves as musicians. Along the way, they stop to rest at a house, but the house is full of robbers. The animals end up scaring away the robbers and stay in the house.

The illustrations in the book are paintings.  The text is set in boxes, with the illustrations occupying half of the box, an entire page, or a small vignette. The illustrations are very realistic, with a lot of browns, grays, and yellows. The backgrounds are very detailed, with each blade of grass meticulously painted. Some of the smaller illustrations are in ovals on the page.

This book is appropriate for all ages, and would be a great read aloud to younger children. There are many good morals that would be great to teach to students, including one to not let strangers into your house. This would also be a good social studies lesson when talking about the Grimm Brothers and their history. I highly recommend this book.