Trickery at its Best

Trickery at its Best

Colton Glover

"Run, run, as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I’m the gingerbread man!"  The Gingerbread Man is a traditional fable that children of all ages enjoy. It has an exciting and surprising storyline that makes it extremely easy for children to follow. Its simple rhythm and repetition immediately catches the attention of children. The short dialogue and clear images lead the children to discover a shocking ending. Another great aspect of this book is that it moves quickly into the climax of the story and then to the ending. Books that are short and to the point are going to be more interesting to any student at any age.

            The gingerbread man hops out of the oven and immediately begins using the motif of trickery by challenging everyone he encounters to catch him if they can. He passes a gardener, mowers, a cow getting water from a well, and two picnicking bears. They all try to chase him, but no one can get close enough to catch him. The gingerbread man finally approaches a river and asks the fox to try to catch him, but the fox responds differently than all of the others. The fox then uses trickery to convince the gingerbread man to ride on his back across the river so the others won’t catch him. The fox claims that the water is getting deeper and deeper until the gingerbread man moves right on top of his nose. Without hesitation, the fox snaps his jaws eating the gingerbread man in one bite. The gingerbread man thought he was doing a good job at tricking the others, but he didn't realize that they fox was tricking him into becoming a snack.

Tickled One Time Too Many

Tickled One Time Too Many

Colton Glover

         Too much of a good thing can lead us to trouble. "Ticklish Tom" has an easy rhyme scheme that allows children to catch on and follow along with ease. It is almost lyrical in the sense that you can hear the melody as you read. This poem is a great example of children’s poetry, using a catchy storyline to convey an underlying life lesson that when we are overexposed to things that bring us joy they have the potential of distracting us from the more important things in life, leading us into a troubling or, in this case, dangerous situation where life has been taken for granted.

            Tom was tickled by everyone and everything he came across during his day. He was tickled so often that he "wiggled and giggled and fell on the floor" more than once. Tom was tickled by his mother, his friends, the grass, the rain, and even the clouds until he heard the "rumble, rumble, whistle, roar" of the train. This use of onomatopoeia seemed to distract Tom and afterwards he was not ticklish anymore, which implies that Tom died on the railroad tracks. He "laughed his way right out of town" because he was enjoying being tickled so much. However, he did not take the time to realize that there needs to be a balance between work and play. He was not taking life seriously enough so it ended before he knew it.

            The life lesson in this poem is morbid, but it is very true. There are appropriate times for playing around and being serious. This poem conveys that you shouldn't take life too seriously, but at the same time you should learn to balance work and play. Even though this poem is extremely shocking it shows us the reality of what can happen if we take life for granted in general.