Dianne de Las CasasRecensioni

The first time I heard this book, I was teaching at a school in Jefferson parish. The author came to read to the whole school. The author read the book was with so much enthusiasm and passion you couldn't help but be enamored by the story she was reading. I love all the different twists on classic fairy tales, and I love reading to my students. I use stories such as this to teach compare and contrast. As opposed to other fairy tales that do not contain many cultures, this story has a rich tradition and culture entwined into the cajun culture.

"The Cajun Cornbread Boy" tells the story of an old lady who always wanted a child. One day, she made cajun cornbread inside her magic skillet and Cornbread Boy came to life! He quickly ran out of the house and encountered a raccoon, fox and an alligator. All of the animals tried to eat him. The alligator told Cornbread Boy that he could swim him across the bayou, but he gobbled him up instead! The alligator quickly spit him out because Cornbread Boy was filled with cajun spices. All of the animals learned a lesson, which is not to trick people. I loved reading this book because it is a Louisiana twist on The Gingerbread Man. I will use this book when my class does a unit on Louisiana History and explain where "Cajun Country" is in our state.

A fun twist on The Gingerbread Man, The Cajun Cornbread Boy tells a similar story but takes place in Louisiana instead. I read this book to my class during our Louisiana theme and they loved it. I really enjoyed how the story had some French words in it and included animals that can be seen throughout Louisiana.

I thought this was a really cute book especially with living in Louisiana. We are known as the cajun state and this would be a great book to share with children in the fall. I think this could be a great book before thanksgiving and you could do a workshop with the cajun culture and bake some corn bread for the class to eat. Everyone loves a snack so I think that would really get the children interested with bringing them some corn bread to try.

"Run, cher, run, as fast as you can! You't can't catch me - I'm full of cayenne." This adaptation of the gingerbread man takes the reader to the Louisiana bayou and into the Cajun kitchen. This a fun book to teach a little about the Cajun culture. It even has a recipe for southern cornbread.½

I loved this book. It is about a roach and a chicken being the best of friends and working together to get food. Except roach was not helping out much lately. He was sick. The chicken then catches the roach in a lie and it ruins their friendship. This book is about not lying because it can ruin the trust people have in you and cause you to loose friends.

A long time ago, Sun God spent his time enjoying a special secret treat. Wind God wants him to share his treat with the people but Sun God gets angry. Wind God transforms himself to help the people find the secret of the cacao beans.

It’s time to get this book and plan a Halloween storytelling festival throughout the school. Buy two copies; rip them up, and distribute them to kids around the school as story starts. They could tell, retell, rewrite, videotape their own versitons, and generally just have a good time performing, listening, and even trying to tell one better than the one they just heard! Sometimes, such an inclusive activity at any age just might develop writing and telling skills that last a lifetime. Don’t forget to archive the event with all-day videotaping of storytellers in the library learning commons and it will be a great way to draw crowds to the virtual learning commons for weeks afterward. Highly recommended.

This was the story of Paw Paw, Maw Maw, Beau and Belle and how Maw Maw wanted to make biscuits but needed ingredients from the store. She sent Beau first but he ended up being 'eaten' by the big bad bear, then she sent belle, and Paw Paw, and so on, until the entire family had been eaten. Their pet squirrel comes to save the day when the bear falls from a tree and out pops the whole family.

The Cajun Cornbread Boy had a similar background as the Ginger Breadboy. I thought the short story had great illustrations throughout the book. the cornbread boy was drawn in a iron skillet, and his face was made out sausage for his mouth, red peppers for the eyes, and two pieces of butter on each side of his face for his cheeks. I think that this book would great to use in a classroom, as a compare and contrast lesson.

A New Orleans author writes this book. It is a spin-off of “The Little Red Hen.” This book introduces students to the concepts needed to write a story. The pictures are cute, playful, full color and full page. Each page introduces a new step to writing an “egg-cellent” story. These steps include brainstorming, research, outline, draft, edit, proof, and share with friends. There is even a playful recipe for a story included at the end of the book.

This book puts a Cajun spin on a life lesson. Always work hard and never lie because something will come back to bite you. Literally in this book the chicken ate the roach after she caught him lying. There are many Cajun french sayings and words used throughout the book. The author included how to pronounce them and by using contect clues readers can figure out the meanings. The definitions are also provided in the back. This book is sort of a folklore as well.

In this fictional story the author informs her readers how at one point in time cockroaches and chickens were once the very best of friends. After the cockroach seemed to take advantage of the chicken the chicken ate the cockroach and all of his cockroach friends. This ended the friendship between all cockroaches and chickens.
The author wrote this fictional story using fairly easy words. There are some phrases that are written in French that some students would have trouble pronouncing and even understading. At the back of the book there is a glossary that breaks down how to say the French words and what they mean. The illustrations in this book are very well put together. I would read this to my students when discussing Louisiana authors.

A cute Cajun take on the beloved Gingerbread Man story that has been passed down to us all for years. With great illustrations, both Cajun and French words, and Southern animals you'd find along the swamps, a spicy cornbread created out of cayenne runs around singing his own version of the gingerbread man song. As a special treat at the end of this book, there is a recipe for Southern Cornbread.½

This incredibly creative book is a great introduction to the writing process. The creative an punny wording is reinforced by the illustrations that bring the work of Eric Carle to mind. The paper collage designs include chicken references to many childhood classics. The hen even visits starhawks coffee, which I am not sure is a compliment or an insult to the famous brand.

While totally a school book - steps of writing process covered, the mock covers of 'chicken' classics at the end of the story are so funny!

Taking the classic nursery rhyme and cumulative tale about The House That Jack Built as her model, author and storyteller Dianne de Las Casas spins a witchy tale in this humorous picture-book, complete with plenty of onomatopoeia. "This is the cat (meow, meow) / That lived in the house (creak, creak) / That Witchy built (clap, clap, clap, clap)," it begins, adding layers of complexity to the chain of events with each new page. The climax comes when Witchy herself appears upon the scene, spooking all involved...

This kind of story and song, in which each addition to the tale is recited together with all that preceded it - The Twelve Days of Christmas being another well-known example - makes for a wonderful storytelling experience. The inclusion of sound words here can only add to the fun, I would think, allowing children to participate in the telling as well. The cut-paper artwork, done by Holly Stone-Barker, is colorful and entertaining. All in all, The House That Witchy Built is an engaging little book, one I would recommend to storytellers and/or younger children looking for fun Halloween fare.

Dianne de Las Casas puts a twist on the well known tale of the Gingerbread boy. A good book for grades K - 2 and can be used to compare and contrast storys. At the back of the book the author includes a recipe for cornbread and a glossary for some of the unknown cajun words used in the book.

This folktlore is set in Louisiana. It's about a cornbread boy instead of a gingerbread man. Because it's a cajun cornbread he's spicy therefore none of the animals he comes across is able to eat him up. At the end of the book it includes a recipe to make cornbread.

The classic tale about the Gingerbread man with a cajun twist.

This tome is a most interesting collection of Filipino culture. Divided by genre, this is for many upper elementary to middle school students. There is variety within each genre and is well indexed as well as full of interesting notes about areas and the stories it includes. The photos, recipes and craft directions enhance the tales. Recommended.

Madame Poulet has a friend named Monsieur Roach who is a liar and a lazy bug that is taking advantage of her. Find out how Madame Poulet ends the problem. Folklore is always exciting to read because their is usually a lesson or a moral to the story. Teach your children that folklore teaches lessons and read to them this story to figure out what the lesson of this story is. Children will realize that if there is a will there is a way to solve problems.

Nice, safe, sweet stories for early childhood through 6th grade. The attempt to show the global nature of many of these stories is great, but in many cases the cultural nuances of doing so are not considered. Yes, these stories do have standards links, but they could be stronger. Techniques are good for someone new to this idea only. Not recommended.

(easy, folklore/fable, Louisiana) This story follows the traditional "Gingerbread Man' but with a twist at the end. Cajun Cornbread Boy is spicy, because he is Cajun, and therefore the alligator is unable to eat him up. He instead spits him out and Cajun Cornbread boy is able to continue on about his wanderings. At the end of the book, there is a recipe for cornbread that you can make spicy or not, and a glossary of Louisiana terms. It would be fun, with the appropriate adminstrative permission, to make the cornbread recipe in the back of the book.

A tangram is a set of seven paper or plastic shapes that the players uses to build shapes of all kinds. The object is clever construction. Our author has developed a technique of reader’s theatre where kids tell stories and illustrate those stories with a tangram as one would on a felt board. Dozens of simple stories are presented here with suggested tangram illustrations. It is a fun and clever technique to engage kids and teen tellers in another way to capture the attention of the listener but also develop the reading and storytelling of the participants. Teacher librarians could demonstrate this technique to a volunteer, a group of students, a paraprofessional and get the ball rolling in a class or across the school. It dawns on this that here should be a way to do this on a computer projected on a screen, and one might issue this as a challenge to kids who might actually create an app to do so. This idea is clever enough to demand its purchase and integration into the idea of reading, telling, and doing stories for fun. Highly recommended.