I absolutely adore reading different Gingerbread Man stories to children.  Luckily my kids like listening to the stories and that’s what I call a win-win situation (because they would hear them either way).  Today, I couldn’t help myself, I had to write a post telling you about my favorite Gingerbread Man stories (plus a new favorite).  In school, I planned on reading Gingerbread Man stories to my students in December, when their brains were turning to mush and I needed something to catch (and keep) their attention.

I started reading my son Gingerbread Man stories for a slightly different reason. He thinks they’re funny and after reading one, he was hooked.  Recently, he became curious about the gigantic Menorah displayed in our grocery store’s parking lot and I was somewhat at a loss to explain it to him.   Because I’m an annoying teacher and I’ll never not be a teacher, I went to the library and found two books to read with my son.

This was our first read.

But what I’m really excited about is this one.

Yes.  The dreidel runs away just like the Gingerbread Man.  Like my son, I love Gingerbread Man stories because they are funny. Who doesn’t love the mental image of an inanimate object fleeing an angry mob?  Kids easily pick up on the concept of story structure after they read only two of them.  It also helps kids see the importance of using other books to help inform their thinking about the book they’re currently reading (In the last story, the wolf ate the gingerbread man.  I wonder if this means that the little boy is going to eat the runaway pickle?).  And, I mean HELLO, art projects!

There are a bazillion gingerbread man variants out there but I want to tell you my favorites.  I’ll skip the original story but even that one has a ton of different versions and it is of course worthwhile.

This one is my son’s absolute favorite.  I recommend getting the audiobook for this one because John Lithgow does a great job of reading it.  If you can get over the trauma he caused you when he was on that season of Dexter.

A runaway pickle.  C’mon!

Yes, that’s a runaway ice cube.

This one is my personal all time favorite.  It is the sassiest tortilla in all of literature.

Gingerbread Man stories are popular and I was always able to find all of these at the library which is great for you.  Over time, I’ve collected most of my favorite ones you see above except for The Runaway Tortilla.  Alas, when I look on Amazon, the cheapest one is $46.

I hope my list will inspire you to check out a few of these from your library.  If you have any favorites, let me know.

I haven’t seen this book at my library (yet) but I also encourage you to check out The HerStories Project on Amazon.  It’s a Kindle bestseller (HELLO!) and it is a great gift idea for someone.