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Ganesha's Sweet Tooth (2012)

by Emily Haynes(Favorite Author)

3.9 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1452103623 (ISBN13: 9781452103624)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Chronicle Books

review 1: This is a great full of colors picture book that retells the story of how the Hindu god Ganesha helped to write the Mahabharata, the epic poem of Hindu literature. Ganesha is just like any ordinary boy, expect for one small thing, he has the head of an elephant and rides along with his friend the magical mouse. Ganesha’s weakness are sweets and he especially loves the traditional dessert laddoo. Ganesha cannot resist biting into any laddoo dessert, and when he bites into a super jumbo jawbreaker laddoo his tusk breaks right off! Ganesha becomes awfully upset, but Vyasa, a wise poet, soon makes him realize that what seems broken can become useful after all. With the help of Ganesha and his broken tusk, the epic poem the Mahabharata gets written. This adorable story is fil... moreled with strengths. One of the most obvious strengths are the illustrations. The colors are bright and jump right off the page. The colors are vibrant and beautiful patterns are incorporated in each page. These illustrations give off energy as you flip through each page. Another positive aspect to this story is its rich cultural detail. Because this short story incorporates cultural detail this book can be used in the classroom to introduce a multicultural lesson about the Hindu cultural. Even as importantly, the moral this story offers to young children is another strength. Ganesha looks at his broken tusk as a flaw, but poet Vyas shows him that what may not seem pretty and useful, may be beautiful and valuable to another. This is a great lesson that children can take from this charming story. Overall this book was wonderful, however one or two aspects of this book can be seen as weaknesses. Some of the concepts used in this book may be hard for young children, kindergarten to first grade age range, to understand. An example of this can be seen when Ganesha’s magical mouse attempts to negotiate terms of agreement with the poet Vyasa. Young readers may not understand this advanced terminology and not understand what it means to negotiate. So teachers and parents must be aware that defining advanced vocabulary to young readers is important in order for young reader to fully understand the story. Also, another aspect of the book that can be seen as a weakness is the fact that the book is not the true story told in the Hindu religion. The author herself explains that she retold the story in a child-friendly manner that would catch the reader’s attention and encourage them to research the story and the Hindu religion further. So teachers and parents must also be aware that this book is was wrote with the intentions to promote Hindu culture exploration rather than to offer and expository lesson about the true story told in the Hindu religion. In the charming story, Ganesha helps write the epic Hindu poem the Mahabharata as poet Vyasa orally tells him the story. So a fun class activity would be to have students write their own poems. The students would be paired up, and one of them would tell them the poem as the other one writes it down; just as Ganesha and Vyasa wrote the Mahabharata.
review 2: Ganesha's Sweet Tooth is about a young Hindu god that has an elephant head. Ganesha loves sweets and so does her best friend, Mr. Mouse. They love sweets so much that they eat them all the time. But when they come across a candy that they had not seen before called a Jawbreaker, they are intrigued and Ganesha has to have it. Mr. Mouse warned Ganesha to be careful because he could injure his tusk if he wasn't careful. But despite warnings, Ganesha takes a bite and breaks off his tusk. Ganesha is sad and throws the tusk and it hits a poet. This poet, seeing that Ganesha is sad decides to ask him for his help writing a long script for him. This story was very interesting because it was a different culture that I had not yet read about in a children's book. I liked it but the story became boring at times. The illustrations were fun to look at because they were very colorful, but I think that to students, especially young ones, they might be a little distracting. less

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