The Gingerbread Man
Author: Jim Aylesworth
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Copyright: 1998
Pages: 30
Reading Level: 3.8
Genre: Fairytale/Fiction
Rating: ****

Summary:
The gingerbread man, as the story goes there was a little old woman and a little old man they decided to make a gingerbread man. Well they carved him out and put him in the oven, and when they could smell his sweet scent they opened up the oven and OUT JUMPED THE GINGERBREAD MAN! And he ran! He ran as fast as he could, and with each person he passed the taunted them. He ran past eh butcher, the cow, the sow and after each one he would yell “Run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me I’m the gingerbread man!” As they shouted for him to come back he would yell back “No! No! I won’t come back I’d rather run than be your snack!” And this continued until he came to the clever fox, who acted hard of hearing which brought the gingerbread man closer, then caught him off guard and snatched him up and ate him! And that ended the tale of the gingerbread man.

Who would benefit from reading this?
All kids should know this story along with the traditional fairy tales I think. It rhymes and has a sing song type rhythm to the story so all kids will enjoy having it read to them.

Potential problems/conflicts:
The gingerbread man gets eaten in the end, which might frighten some kids.

My reaction:
I love this story. I am always captivated by the rhythm of the story. I want to chant right along with the gingerbread man when he yells back to all the people. This story also has some very good pictures. The little gingerbread man’s face has a lot of personality as do the other characters. Great art and a classic tale that is fun to hear over and over again! There is also a recipe on the back so you can make your own gingerbread man...an added bonus no doubt!