One of Seuss' Best - a review of "Yertle the Turtle"
Customer Rating: 
Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories is amongst Seuss' best works. The stories are poignant. They are all great Read-a-Louds, and they have great rhymes.
The first of the three stories is Yertle the Turtle. It's about a king turtle that decides that his pond is not kingdom enough. He orders his subjects -- other turtles -- to stack themselves so that he can see further; his assumption being that he is the king of all he surveys.
It's actually very amusing to see how many ways there are to interpret this story. A quick trip over to Amazon.com will show you that people view Yertle as everything from simple bossy-boots, to a stand in for Hitler or Stalin. And far be it for me to argue that they aren't correct. And, in fact, this is the power of this story. That it can be understood from different perspectives, so that children can 'grow into' various interpretations.
Personally, my first thought was that Yertle was like the British Aristocracy, while the lowly turtle Mac (at the bottom of the stack) was the American Colonies.
The second story is "Gertrude McFuzz". Gertrude is a bird that is suffering from jealousy. She sees La-La Lee Lou and wants a grand tale like her. In the end though, she comes to appreciate what she has.
The final story continues with the theme of humility and is entitled, "The Big Brag".
The Accelerated Reading designation for this book is 3.3 which means that your average 3rd Grader in the 3rd month of school should be able to read this book themselves without getting too frustrated by words they don't know. [The book can be read to any age, of course.]
The "official" Interest Level is given as Preschool thru 2nd Grade. I, personally, disagree and think this makes no sense given the reading designation, and would suggest Preschool on thru fourth grade.
Meant for practice reading, Seuss tried to include useful messages when he could. The ones in this books are particularly useful and deal with consideration, jealousy, and bragging.
Highly recommended.
Pam T~
Yertle is still fresh after all these years
Customer Rating: I remember this one only vaguely from childhood. But when a friend loaned it to us recently, I had to buy our own copy.
There are three stories inside:
Yertle the Turtle -- be considerate
(something about Gertie's tail feather) -- be content
The Big Brag -- be humble
(sorry I can't remember the name of the second one -- the book is tucked away in the slumbering bedroom and I am NOT going in there to check it)
The morals of the stories are accessible at the kindergarten level -- and nice reminders for adults too.
The rhyming and meter, as always with Dr. Seuss, are great. Just perfect for reading out loud. Easy for the kids to memorize the lines, too.
This one deserves a spot next to Green Eggs and Ham and all the rest.
