Review: Turtle's Race with Beaver

Bibliography:

Bruchac, Joseph and James Bruchac. 2003. Turtle’s Race With Beaver. Ill. by Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey. New York: Dial. ISBN 0803728522

Plot Summary:

Turtle lives a happy existence in his pond home, but while Turtle is asleep for the winter, Beaver attempts to make the pond his own. Upon awakening, Turtle amiably suggests that they cohabitate, but Beaver wants the pond for himself and challenges Turtle to a race. The winner can claim the pond as his own. Beaver clearly has the physical advantage, but Turtle’s cleverness helps him win the race. Although thoroughly humiliated, Beaver learns a valuable lesson about sharing.

Critical Review:

Variations of the great fables exist within many different cultures. Such is the case with this traditional Seneca fable, a variant of the story told by Aesop as “The Tortoise and the Hare”. Bruchac and his son draw on forty years of experience in the Native American oral tradition to bring this tale to life.

The Bruchacs’ writing style is simple and lends itself well to reading aloud. The text is full of lively language and onomatopoeaia. In the introduction, James Bruchac states that he wanted to “bring the audience into the action.” Young readers will indeed enjoy participating in the forest animals’ cheer as they chant “TURTLE! TURTLE! TURTLE!” The illustrations by Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey are colorful and give the forest creatures (especially the title characters) a big dose of personality. The animals are painted in a clear, vibrant, child-like style over hazy, almost impressionistic, pastel backgrounds.

In this fable, as in so many others, the central conflict matches physical prowess against cleverness. As in the more widely known “Tortoise and the Hare”, cleverness wins out. The “moral”, however, is slightly different here. Whereas Aesop’s theme was “slow and steady wins the race”, the lesson Beaver learns in the Seneca version is to share with others. At the story’s close, he meets a different turtle in a different pond. This time he has learned his lesson, and the two live “happily through all the seasons to come.”

Review Excerpts:

“This appealing variant of the time-honored, cross-cultural tale conveys the need for cooperation, perseverance, and humility within group settings. Children will be so involved in the storytelling that they'll absorb these lessons effortlessly.” - School Library Journal (October 1, 2003)

“A clever twist and a final bit of psychological realism give this variant on a Seneca Indian Tortoise and Hare tale unusually broad audience appeal.” – Booklist (September 15, 2003)

Connections:

Read other versions of the story (such as Aesop’s “The Tortoise and the Hare” or the Grimm Brothers’ “The Hare and the Hedgehog”). In what way are the stories alike – what themes or lessons do they share? In what ways are they different?

Read a nonfiction picture book about Native American culture.

Read picture books of Native American stories by another author (such as Paul Goble) and compare.

Read other books by Joseph Bruchac (such as How Chipmunk Got His Stripes and The Boy Who Lived with the Bears).