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 The Gingerbread Man



BIBLIOGRAPHY

Retold by Kimmel, Eric A.  The Gingerbread Man. New York: Holiday House, 199.3 ISBN 0-8234-0824-8.

PLOT SUMMARY

One day an old woman and old man baked a gingerbread man.  After they finished decorating him, the gingerbread man ran away from them.  As they called him to come back and ran after him, the gingerbread man replied “I’ll run and run as fast as I can.  You can’t catch me.  I’m the gingerbread man.” The gingerbread man keeps on running.  On his way down the road, he runs into a sow.  The sow asks him to slow down since he wants to talk to him.  The gingerbread man keeps on running and replies “I’ll run and run as fast as I can. You can’t catch me.  I’m the gingerbread man! I ran from the woman. I ran from the man. I’ll run from you.  See if I can!”  As he runs away, the gingerbread man passes a dog, a horse and a cow respectively.   They all ask the gingerbread man to slow down but he gives them the same reply as the sow.  All the animals and the old woman and man run after the gingerbread man.  When the gingerbread man reaches a river, he stops to think how to get to the other side.  He meets a fox who tells the gingerbread man he doesn’t have to run from him, and the fox offers to help him cross the river.  As they swim the river, the fox tells the gingerbread man to move up on his body to avoid getting wet.  Once the gingerbread man is on top of the fox’s snout the fox eats him.    

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

In this retelling, as the gingerbread man runs away from the old woman, the old man and the animals, his taunting verse differs from the famous line of “Run, run as fast as you can! You can’t catch me I am the Gingerbread Man!” Children will enjoy repeating the gingerbread man’s verse as he repeats and adds to it when he is running away from the animals. The ending differs as well by showing us that even though the gingerbread man was eaten there will be more when someone bakes some gingerbread.  The soft colors used in the illustrations allow the gingerbread man to stand out as he runs away from everybody. 

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

From Booklist: “A compact text and suitably large pictures makes this just right for groups.

CONNECTIONS

Gather other Eric Kimmel books to read such as:

Anansi and the Talking Melon. ISBN 0823411044

Three Samurai Cats:  A Story from Japan. ISBN 0823418774

The Three Cabritos. ISBN 0761453431

Gather other variant or version of the “The Gingerbread Man.” Such as:

Aylesworth, Jim. The Gingerbread Man. ISBN 0590972197

Kimmel, Eric. The Runaway Tortilla. ISBN 189081718X

Wiesner, David. The Three Pigs. ISBN 0618007016             

Students can create a double bubble map to compare and contrast other variants of this folktale.

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