The Three Billy Goats Gruff

by Mac Barnett (Author) Jon Klassen (Illustrator)

Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade

The momentous debut of a groundbreaking Fairy Tale series -- a brilliantly crafted, hilarious twist on this beloved classic, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, from renowned, award-winning, and New York Times bestselling duo and picture book pioneers Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen!

Once there was a bridge and a terrible and VERY hungry troll lived underneath it. When the three Billy Goats Gruff decide to clip-clop across the bridge to get to the grassy ridge, the troll is already imagining all the way to prepare a delicious goat dinner. But the troll underestimates those seemingly sweet but oh-so-savvy goats!

This is the first in a groundbreaking new collection of fractured fairy tales crafted by one of today's most celebrated and acclaimed authors, Mac Barnett, and brought to stunning visual life by award-winning and beloved creator of I Want My Hat Back, Jon Klassen. Told with pitch perfect timing and pacing, hilarious detail, and Barnett's signature narrator voice, this is Billy Goats Gruff as never before. High-stakes page turns will have readers on the edge of their seats and giggling along, as they join each goat and anticipate the arrival of the hungry and terrible troll living under the bridge.

With Klassen's brilliantly restrained scenes, arresting characters, and celebrated artistic style, this first of three fairy tales is destined to be a true publishing event!

Select format:
Hardcover
$18.99

Kirkus

Fans of either Barnett or Klassen will love this retelling, but librarians won’t be sending their Paul Galdone or Jerry Pinkney retellings out to pasture just yet. 

ALA/Booklist

Starred Review
This inaugural offering in Scholastic's new fairy-tale series... sets the bar high and will be a favorite read-aloud among kids. Picture-book superstars Barnett and Klassen are known for their stellar collaborations, and their many fans will be waiting to snap this up.

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review

It's hard to imagine a more appropriate pair of picture book rascals to remix this famous fairy tale, a series-starting retelling, than collaborators Barnett and Klassen (The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse). Working in his customary earthen tones, Klassen gives the troll a round schnozz and pointy fangs; his under-the-bridge hideout sports a skull-and-bone mobile. Gleeful grossness abounds as the troll awaits a would-be feast ("All he'd eaten lately was... some goop he'd found in his belly button"), but when the first two ungulate siblings trod the bridge, the troll's elaborate rhyming lines reveal unexpected gastronomic sophistication ("A goat flambé with candied yams./ A goat clambake, with goat, not clams!"). Narrow ribbons of images rise as the pages turn, creating a tidal effect that crowds the text close to the top of later spreads. Meanwhile, the goats' ruse goes just as tradition dictates: the troll falls for each sibling's offer of a larger, tastier brother, building to a turn of gargantuan proportions and a multi-spread, slapstick finale that's guaranteed to elicit raucous fun and repeat performances: "Who seeks to reach the grassy ridge?/ Who dares to walk across my bridge?" Ages 4-8. (Oct.)

Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes



Mac Barnett
Mac Barnett is the author of several books for children, including Caldecott Honor Books Extra Yarn and Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, both illustrated by Jon Klassen; President Taft Is Stuck in the Bath, illustrated by Chris Van Dusen; Leo: A Ghost Story, illustrated by Christian Robinson; and the Terrible Two series, cowritten with Jory John and illustrated by Kevin Cornell. Mac Barnett lives in California.

Isabelle Arsenault is the creator of Alpha and the illustrator of several other picture books, including Jane, the Fox, and Me by Fanny Britt, a New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Children's Book of the Year; Captain Rosalie by Timothée de Fombelle; and Cloth Lullaby: The Woven Life of Louise Bourgeois by Amy Novesky. Isabelle Arsenault lives in Montreal.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781338673845
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Orchard Books
Publication date
October 18, 2022
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV019000 - Juvenile Fiction | Humorous Stories
JUV002090 - Juvenile Fiction | Animals | Farm Animals
JUV039000 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | General
JUV012040 - Juvenile Fiction | Fairy Tales & Folklore | Adaptations
JUV052000 - Juvenile Fiction | Monsters
Library of Congress categories
-

Subscribe to our delicious e-newsletter!