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Five busy beavers
2018
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Five little beavers, working feverishly to build a dam, are enticed one by one to leave their endeavor to play with other animals on the river bank, leaving one tired beaver to finish the job. - (Baker & Taylor)

After working feverishly to build a dam, five little beavers leave one by one to play with other animals on the river bank, with only one tired beaver left to finish the job. - (Baker & Taylor)

Five busy beavers building up a dam,
closing up the river where the salmon swam.
Gnawing down trees and ferrying the logs.
Slapping on the mud that they gathered from the bog.
Along came a muskrat who wanted to play,
and one little beaver swam away.


Five little beavers are hard at work on their dam until, one by one, their forest friends pull them away to play. After visits from a muskrat, a heron, a frog, and a turtle, there’s just one hardworking beaver left at the end of the day. But when the fifth tired beaver leaves her sticks and mud behind and heads back to the lodge, a big surprise awaits!

With catchy, playful rhyme, irresistibly cute illustrations, and a supplementary page of facts about all the species featured, Five Busy Beavers makes counting and learning fun! - (Perseus Publishing)

Join five little beavers and a forest full of friends in this fact-filled countdown to fun! - (Perseus Publishing)

Five busy beavers building up a dam,
closing up the river where the salmon swam.
Gnawing down trees and ferrying the logs.
Slapping on the mud that they gathered from the bog.
Along came a muskrat who wanted to play,
and one little beaver swam away.


Five little beavers are hard at work on their dam until, one by one, their forest friends pull them away to play. After visits from a muskrat, a heron, a frog, and a turtle, there's just one hardworking beaver left at the end of the day. But when the fifth tired beaver leaves her sticks and mud behind and heads back to the lodge, a big surprise awaits!

With catchy, playful rhyme, irresistibly cute illustrations, and a supplementary page of facts about all the species featured, Five Busy Beavers makes counting and learning fun! - (Simon and Schuster)

Five busy beavers building up a dam,
closing up the river where the salmon swam.
Gnawing down trees and ferrying the logs.
Slapping on the mud that they gathered from the bog.
Along came a muskrat who wanted to play,
and one little beaver swam away.


Five little beavers are hard at work on their dam until, one by one, their forest friends pull them away to play. After visits from a muskrat, a heron, a frog, and a turtle, there’s just one hardworking beaver left at the end of the day. But when the fifth tired beaver leaves her sticks and mud behind and heads back to the lodge, a big surprise awaits!

With catchy, playful rhyme, irresistibly cute illustrations, and a supplementary page of facts about all the species featured, Five Busy Beavers makes counting and learning fun! - (Simon and Schuster)

Author Biography

Stella Partheniou Grasso is the author of There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Puck, Over at the Rink, and 101 Creepy Canadian Jokes. She wrote Five Busy Beavers after she found a stick on the shore at her cottage with bite marks where a beaver had felled the branch. Stella and her family spend as much time as they can at their cottage, and the rest at home in Ajax, Ontario, Canada.

Christine Battuz is an illustrator and designer living in Quebec, Canada. Her work has appeared in textbooks, novels, magazines, and greeting cards, but Christine’s favorite type of work is illustrating books for young children. She has many picture books to her credit, publishing in French and English in North America and Europe. - (Perseus Publishing)

Stella Partheniou Grasso is the author of There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Puck, Over at the Rink, and 101 Creepy Canadian Jokes. She wrote Five Busy Beavers after she found a stick on the shore at her cottage with bite marks where a beaver had felled the branch. Stella and her family spend as much time as they can at their cottage, and the rest at home in Ajax, Ontario, Canada.

Christine Battuz is an illustrator and designer living in Quebec, Canada. Her work has appeared in textbooks, novels, magazines, and greeting cards, but Christine's favorite type of work is illustrating books for young children. She has many picture books to her credit, publishing in French and English in North America and Europe. - (Simon and Schuster)

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Publishers Weekly Reviews

In what's essentially a woodsy, rodent-themed take on the "Five Little Monkeys" nursery rhyme, Grasso follows the building efforts of five beavers that gnaw down trees to build a dam, despite their dwindling numbers ("Along came a turtle, who wanted to play./ And one little beaver waddled away"). Grasso's rhymes aren't always very imaginative, but they hit their marks and make for bouncy reading ("Four busy beavers chewing on some wood,/ chopping down trees as fast as they could"). Battuz creates an appealing cast of dumpling-shaped, easily distracted beavers, setting their hard work (and play) in a welcoming, multitextured woodland landscape. A collection of facts about beavers, herons, fireflies, and other animals from the story close out a cheerful tale that concludes with a surprise housewarming party for the "one tired beaver" who stuck around to finish the job. Ages 3–8. (Mar.)

Copyright 2018 Publishers Weekly.

School Library Journal Reviews

PreS-Gr 1—Modeled in the style of a classic counting rhyme, this story tells the tale of five beavers working to build a dam. On each page, one of the crew leaves, drawn away by a distraction from a marshland creature. Finally, only one hard working, diligent beaver is left to finish the dam and trudge home by the light of a firefly. Happily, his friends try to make amends by surprising him with a party when he finally arrives. The end pages provide some factual information about a beaver pond and the animals that are featured in the book. The digitally rendered illustrations are bright and detailed. VERDICT This original take on a classic is recommended as a general purchase for a primary collection. Great for a number-themed storytime or a lap read.—Jasmine L. Precopio, Fox Chapel Area School District, Pittsburgh

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal.

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