Little Pierre

Little Pierre by Robert D. San Souci
Publisher: Harcourt
Copyright: 2003
Number of Pages: 28
Age: 7-8
Genre: Fantasy

Summary:
In this story its about 4 brothers with different versions of the name Pierre. Foolish Pierre, Wise Pierre, Big Pierre, and Little Pierre. Little Pierre was the smartest of them all and worked very hard. One day they heard that the richest man in the lands daughter was taken by an ogre. The one to find her would get to have her hand in marriage. So the Pierre brothers set out to find her. They eventually after a few days of trying come to the ogre's house. The ogre says they can stay there( but the ogres plan was to kill and eat them). Little Pierre figures everything out aboud fooling the ogre. An example would be when they made up fake bodies in the beds that they were staying in. The ogre comes in and hits the beds, thinking he killed the boys he goes to sleep. Then the boys grab the girl and sneak out of the house. The next day the ogre comes running to find the boys and girl. They were stopped in their tracks by a huge catfish that wanted to eat them too. So they each went up to the catfish saying eat my brother/sister thats behind me he/she is bigger then me! So when it came to the last Pierre boy he said eat the brother behind me he is much bigger. So they all passed the catfish, then the ogre came and the catfish said are you the biggest of them all? The ogre said yes I am the biggest there is...and the catfish jump and swallowed him up. The girl and boys got away and the girl decided to marry Little Pierre.

Who might benefit from this book?
I think that a child would really enjoy this book. Its a fun adventure about these kids figuring things out on this journey. It lets the kids see how creative the children in the stories are.

What problems might this cause?
I think something that could always be a problem would be how it could send a message that it always works out in the end. Which typically it does but its almost never the way that we want it or expect it.

My reaction:
I loved this book. I thought it was super cute because of the fun characters and their personalities. I also loved it because of the artistic hand in the book. The colors and characters were well drawn out.