Literature Part 1

Book Review

Title of book : Clever Katya
Retold by :Julia Donaldson
The Illustrator :Jane Kochnewitz
The Publisher :Ginn


Summary of Clever Katya :

This Story is about an intelligent girl named Katya. One day, the Czar of Russia was out in his coach when he saw a farmer eating some bread. He asked the farmer for some because he is hungry. The farmer kindly gave the Czar some bread from his basket of bread. The Czar told the farmer that this was the best bread he had ever tasted and asked who made the bread. The farmer told the Czar that his daughter, Katya made it. The Czar wanted to know more about Katya. The farmer told him that Katya was a wonderful girl, pretty, strong, a good farmer, a good singer, a good baker and is the cleverest person in Russia. After knowing more about Katya, the Czar then jumped back into his coach. He told the farmer that he will be back tomorrow. The next day, the Czar gave the farmer a basket of eggs. He asked Katya to hatch the eggs into chickens within a day. Katya realised that they were hard-boiled eggs and they will never hatch out. The next day, the Czar went to the farmer's house again, he saw a girl singing while sowing boiled beans. He knew that was Katya so he asked her why she did that. Katya then explained to the Czar that boiled beans will grow just as quickly as hard-boiled eggs can hatch out. The Czar had a great laugh. Then, the Czar gave Katya a handful of wool. He asked Katya to make curtains out the handful of wool. Katya thought of an idea. When the Czar came to the farmer's house the next day, Katya gave him a little twig. The Czar was beginning to like Katya. He was confused. Katya then told him that her family was too poor to buy a spinning wheel. She asked the Czar if he could make a spinning wheel out of a twig. The Czar laughed again. Katya laughed too, and she was beginning to like the Czar. the last question the Czar asked Katya was to fill a cup with all the water from the sea. With her intelligence, Katya thought of an idea again. The next day the Czar came back. Katya came to the door with the cup. The Czar found out that the cup was empty. Katya told him that if he couldn't dam all the rivers first, the rivers will flow into the sea and fill it up again. The Czar laughed again. This time he laughed louder than ever. Then, he asked Katya to marry him. He made a promise with Katya that when he gets fed-up with her, she can bring something she loved best in the palace. For a year they lived happily. One day, the Czar was in bad mood and asked Katya to go back to her father's house. Just then, she put the Czar into a chest as he is still fast asleep. When she reached home, the Czar jumped out of the big chest and scolded her. Katya reminded him about the promise that he made about the thing she loved best in the palace. the Czar was happy because Katya married him because she loved him but not his riches. The Czar agreed that Katya is the cleverest person in Russia.

The part I liked the most :
The part i liked the most is when Katya answered The Czar's questions wisely and correctly.

The moral of the story :
From the story, I learned not to boast but to be humble and speaking politely.

Ratings :
I would like to rate this book 5 stars (*****)