Teach Life Lessons With the Three Billy Goats Gruff Book

The Three Billy Goats Gruff Story

In The Three Billy Goats Gruff, the goats want to eat luscious green grass on the other side of the meadow and need to cross a river to get there. The problem is, there’s a big hungry troll sitting underneath the bridge that is plotting ways to eat a delicious goat dinner. 

The billy goats need to think on their hooves and trick the ugly troll. The little billy goat passes first and promises the troll that a bigger goat is coming his way, then the middle-sized billy goat passes and convinces the troll to wait for the biggest goat yet. The troll is getting hungrier and greedier and lets the second billy goat pass. 

At last, the third big billy goat gruff passes the bridge and the troll is surprised to see a tough goat. The big billy goat stands up for himself and warns the troll that he will use his sharp horns and strong hooves against him. The book has a satisfying ending, in which — spoiler alert — all three billy goats enjoy the lovely green grass on the other side of the river.

This entertaining story is a great opportunity to teach your child important social-emotional lessons about greed and bullying. Reading this book aloud as a family can open a conversation about what you can do to stand up to bullies and when to ask for help. Additionally, you can ask your reader what they learned from the troll and offer ways they can mitigate feelings of greed. 

The illustrations in this book capture the essence of this story and will keep your young reader engaged. One of the key book details is the visual of the troll. As shown below, he is messy, grouchy, and clearly hungry — a visual metaphor for greed. His character has been given plenty of amusing, rhyming dialogue, which makes it a wonderful family read-aloud. The incredible images support reading comprehension and help growing readers become more confident in their literacy skills.  

Kids will enjoy this classic story and learn great lessons along the way. If your child enjoys The Three Billy Goats Gruff, then check out other groundbreaking books in the new collection of fractured fairy tales! 

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