The great, big, enormous turnip.

by Rosario García

The book “The great, big, enormous turnip” retold by Alexei Tolstoy and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, is an excellent story of cooperation, solidarity and friendship, values that are important to promote in every society. It contains simple vocabulary, repetitive sequences of actions and vivid illustrations which not only catch children’s attention but entertain. The images are so perfectly illustrated that they speak by themselves.

The story begins with an old man who plants a little turnip wishing it to grow strong. It does grow extremely big and strong but at the moment of pulling it up he realizes that he cannot do it on his own and he needs some help, so he calls an old woman. As both of them still cannot pull it up the old woman calls her granddaughter. Then, the granddaughter calls a black dog, the black dog calls a cat, the cat calls a mouse and finally all together can pull the turnip up.

Nowadays lots of values seem to be lost or forgotten as if they were something that belonged to the past. “The great, big, enormous turnip” brings back those values to stay in our minds. You must read it.