The Enormous Potato

The Enormous Potato. retold by Aubrey Davis. illustrated by Dusan Petricic. 1998. 32p. Buffalo, NY: Kids Can Press.

Author Website: www.aubreydavis.com

Illustrator Website: none

Medium: watercolor and pencil

Awards and Honors: none

Audience: 3 and up

Annotation:
A retelling of a traditional Russian tale in which teamwork is used to pull a huge potato from the ground.

Personal Reaction:
This story has been retold many times over- traditionally the oversized vegetable is a turnip, in some retellings it is a carrot, but in this story the huge tuber is a potato.

When a farmer (who looks a bit like a potato himself) plants a tiny potato eye, it grows to massive proportions until the farmer decide it is time to pull it up. When he is unable to pull it out of the ground, he calls in his wife, who wraps her arms around his middle and they both pull together. When the farmer and his wife fail to pull the potato from the ground, the daughter lends a hand...

And so on and so forth, until the dog and the cat get in on the act, too.

Finally a tiny mouse joins the group and, with his effort, they are finally able to pull loose the giant potato- which they all cook up and eat (with the help of the townspeople).

This is a fun story about teamwork that teaches the important message that everyone's efforts- no matter how small they seem- are important.