#17- The Little Red Hen

#17- The Little Red Hen

The Little Red Hen

 Written by: unnamed author

Illustrated by: Barry Downward

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2004

29 pages

Traditional Literature

“’Who will help me plant this wheat?’ ‘Not I,’ said the duck. ‘Not I,’ said the pig. ‘Not I,’ said the cat. ‘Then I will plant it myself,’ said the Little Red Hen. And she did.”

            This book tells the classic story of a hard-working hen. During the story, the Little Red Hen has to plant the grains of wheat, cut the wheat, go to the miller, make the dough, and bake the bread. The whole time, the hen asks the pig, the duck, and the cat if they will help her with her chores. The animals refuse to help her through the whole story. Once the bread is baked and ready to be eaten, the pig, duck, and cat all want to help the hen eat the bread. She won’t share the bread with them because they did not work to make it. She ends up eating the bread herself.

            Downward uses real photographs that he put together in a collage on the computer. The illustrator uses real animals in his pictures. The illustrations have a comical quality to them. All of the pictures are very bright and colorful.

This story would be most appropriate for a 2^nd-5^th grade classroom. This story could be used for a ‘writing directions’ lesson. The story tells about the process of how to make bread. The students would have to choose something that they knew how to do. They would have to write down explicit instructions for that process. The teacher could bring fresh bread as a fun treat during this lesson.