Turtle's Race with Beaver

The Bibliography
Bruchac, Joseph, and James Bruchac. 2003. Turtle's Race with Beaver. Ill. by Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers. ISBN 00803728522

The Plot
During spring, summer and fall, Turtle loves sunning on the rocks in her very own pond. When winter rolls around, Turtle swims to the bottom of her pond to hibernate. While Turtle is resting in the muck, Beaver moves in and takes over the pond, building himself a dam and a lodge. Uh oh! When spring comes back around, Turtle swims to the surface to find that her pond has completely changed! She offers to share her pond with Beaver, but he won't have any of that. He challenges Turtle to a swimming race for ownership of the pond, but Turtle outsmarts him and wins the race. Turtle again offers to share the pond with Beaver, but he's too embarrassed by his loss (and probably his stubbornness), so he moves away to another pond that is also inhabited by a turtle. This time, he knows better, and learns to share.

The Analysis
The illustrations in this book are fantastic. Each page is full of brilliant colors using pen-and-ink, gouache (like watercolor but a little heavier, thicker and darker) and pastels. Lots of people, in fact, some of the reviewers that I read, believe this story to be the Bruchacs' retelling of The Tortoise and the Hare, but it's not! This story does not come from Aesop or Africa, but from (most likely, according to Joseph Bruchac) the Iroquois in the Northeastern United States.

The only negative thing I can say about this book is that on some of the pages where there is a large paragraph of text, it's difficult to read the black text on the colorful background, so if I were reading this story aloud during storytime, I might have a hard time of it.

The Review
Janice M. Del Negro (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, January 2004 (Vol. 57, No. 5)) Father and son team Joseph and James Bruchac follow their previous picture book collaboration, How Chipmunk Got His Stripes (BCCB 3/01), with this Seneca tale of a good-natured turtle who outwits a selfish beaver. A happy resident of "a beautiful little pond," Turtle buries herself in the mud for the winter without a thought of trouble, but while she is sleeping, Beaver arrives and claims her pond as his own. Come spring, Turtle emerges and discovers the interloper; her suggestion to Beaver that they share the pond is met with a challenge to race. Word of the race spreads through the forest, and all the animals come to root for their favorite, but Turtle wins the race with a clever trick. Despite her offer that they share the pond, Beaver slinks away in embarrassment--but it’s clear from the conclusion that even old Beavers can learn new tricks. The language is crisply effective, and the contrast between Turtle’s bucolic life and Beaver’s industrious one and their inevitable conflict have innate suspense. The text builds to a careening momentum that culminates in Turtle’s win, making this prime readaloud or storytelling material. Aruego and Dewey’s pen-and-ink, gouache, and pastel illustrations reflect the story’s energy in the linear compositions and the zingy palette. Joseph Bruchac includes an opening note about the origins and sources of this story; James also includes some information about uses for this humorous teaching tale.

The Connection
This would be an excellent story to incorporate into a Folktales storytime that I do using any one of the various retellings of Jack and the Beanstalk, The Three Billy Goats Gruff and any of those Enormous Potato/Carrot/Turnip stories. I also have made giant mad-lib style stories to accompany some of my storytimes, and for this one, I'd probably use my version of The Emperor's New Clothes where the kids choose funny words to replace integral words in the story. They always love that, especially because I made a special, extra large briefcase type thing to carry them in, so they travel! Ahh, the joys of being a programmer!