sydneycarr's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
reflective
Turtle's Race with Beaver by Joseph Bruchac and James Bruchac, published in 2003. Age level: 1st-3rd grade. This story is a representation of hard work and compassion for those around us. The turtle in this story has been at their pond for their whole live, and loved the environment. During the winter, while turtle was hibernating, a beaver came along and made a massive dam for themselves. The pond's environment was completely changed in the spring when turtle came back, but beaver was stubborn and did not want to compromise. The beaver insisted on racing across the pond and whoever won would be able to stay there. The turtle ended up outsmarting the beaver and won the race, and beaver had to find a new home. Beaver found another nearby pond with another turtle living in it, and the turtle welcomed beaver with open arms. In my classroom, this book would be used as a lighthearted story that would teach my students about compassion towards each other and helpfulness. I think that students will respond well to the lightheartedness of the story, but also they will be interested in the illustrations and plot to resonate with the lesson.
crystal_reads's review against another edition
4.0
Fun tale about an animal race. I appreciated the author's note about the origin of the tale. He shares a little about the nature of storytelling and how each storyteller adds a part of themselves to the story.
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