Three Little Beavers

Diehl, Jean Heilprin.
Three Little Beavers.
Sylvan Dell Publishing.
February 2012.
Review copy provided courtesy of publisher.

In Three Little Beavers, children are introduced to beaver siblings, Beatrix, Bevan and Beverly, who live with their parents near the lodge at Beaver Creek.  As is true in nearly all families, the beaver siblings all strive to hold a place and purpose in their life.  Bevan is an expert with twigs and mud (a must-do for these dam builders)!  Beverley performs all kinds of underwater flips and tricks (a well-known characteristic of beavers).  Poor Beatrix is struggling to find her place in the family - she tries hard at everything she does, but it seems as though everything goes wrong - mud patches fall off the dam and her tumbling and diving need practice.  Beatrix sets off on a trip with the intention of discovering her skills and talents but ultimately finds more wrong, as she gets caught in a trap... along with her siblings once they discover she is missing and try to go about finding her.  It is then that Beatrix discovers her skills and talents - staying calm in frightening situations and facing them head on with bravery!

There is much to be learned about dam-building creatures in Three Little Beavers.  Along with all the knowledge for little ones to pick up on, children are likely to quickly pick up on the "moral" of the story - everyone has a special gift/talent of some sort - you just have to be persistent in finding it and not give up looking just because it's taking you longer than someone else!

Reading/Learning Activities:

• Sylvan Dell Publishing has provided a Teaching Activities guide available on their website to use as a companion to Three Little Beavers.   An activity that I could see using with preschoolers is on page 6: Language Arts & Science: Five Senses, in which children share words that they heard in the story relating to each of the five senses.  
• There are also other books available to use if children take a further interest in beavers: Look Inside a Beaver's Lodge by Megan Cooley Peterson and The Adventures of Buddy the Beaver: Buddy Explores the Pond by Carson Clark are just a couple that are very informative, yet simple enough for young children.

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