Clay Boy

Clay Boy, by Mirra Ginsburg, pictures by Jos. A. Smith

Picture book for children of ages 5-12

3.5 out of 5 stars

Grandpa and Grandma are lonely without any children around anymore, so when Grandpa finds a piece of clay, he creates a small boy out of it. After he comes out of the fire, he comes to life and begins eating everything in sight, literally everything.

            Clay Boy, adapted from Russian folklore was surprising. The story began warm and heartfelt with hope of the clay boy created by Grandpa being a wonderful new addition to Grandpa and Grandma’s family. Instead, a twist was thrown into the story with the clay boy wanting to eat everything in sight, and when all the food was gone from Grandpa and Grandma’s house, the clay boy began to eat the rest of the town, literally. He gulped down the animals, the townspeople, and even Grandpa and Grandma. I, a twenty year old, was scared and surprised at these events. My immediate reaction was that this story should never be read to children because of the fear this story would instill in children. But as I read on, and the brave goat conquered the clay boy, releasing the contents of his stomach back to freedom, I decided that this story was okay. The illustrations of Clay Boy show more emotion than the text itself does, which makes these pictures a great accompaniment to the story. For example, when the goat took his “great, wide leap straight at the big fat belly” of the clay boy, the picture shows the goat, quite a bit smaller than the clay boy, with great determination and strength. All of this is seen by looking at the fierceness of the look in the goat’s eyes.

            The only fear that I have about reading this book to children is the possibility for the children to develop fear themselves as a result of Clay Boy. This is probably not something to worry about since many Disney movies have scarier plot lines than this story. With that being said, I wouldn’t mind incorporating this book somewhere into my curriculum. One idea is to use this story when learning about different cultures in Social Studies since this is a Russian folktale. On the subject of folklore, this story could be read and discussed during a Language Arts theme regarding folklore from different parts of the world. This story will expose them to things that Russian children read and stories that they would probably hear from their culture.