Peter and the Wolf based on the original work by Sergei Prokofiev, retold by Chris Raschka

This is the story of Peter, and a cast of animals-including a sneaky wolf! Each character is introduced and many argue among themselves. When the wolf arrives on the scene, he is hungry and has a little snack.

Peter, looking on from afar, sees the whole debacle and catches the wolf. He manages to talk down a group of hunters from killing the wolf into taking him to the zoo.

The text from this book is from Prokofiev's children's musical symphony.

What I Thought:
What a delightful story! As I was reading this book I had the tune of the symphony running through my head and I was putting the words to the melody.

Raschka's illustrations are superb. He created a stage setting out of heavy paper then added the characters into the stage as they entered the story to give most of the illustrations a three-dimensional effect.

A fun way to use this story would be to have a readers theater. The book is set up perfectly for this activity as each character's lines are prominently shown. I think the kids who participate would have a blast with the unusual text that are depicting what the animals are saying.

Finally, this book would be a great way to introduce symphonies and classical music with kids. You can read more about Peter and the Wolf, the symphonic work here via Wikipedia.

The only thing that I think would have made this book better would be to include a CD with the music of the symphony with it so the readers could read the text while listening to the symphony play.

Overall, highly recommended.

Want to find out more? Check it out on Amazon: Peter and the Wolf based on the original work by Sergei Prokofiev, retold by Chris Raschka.