Customer Reviews

The Little Red Hen

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Paul Galdone is on my entering kindergartener's Summer Reading List and I can certainly understand why. He has a marvelous way of drawing expressions and displaying, with detail, a story in a manner that makes it real and concrete for little children.

Certainly, my children (3 and 5; boy and girl respectively) like this version of the Little Red Hen. And I found it really useful as a learning tool too.

While other versions just have the repetitive print "Not I" standing on it's own, the Galdone version has a picture of each animal next to the words. These pictures allow even a toddler to participate in `reading' the story aloud.

A Great Addition to the home library.


Some lesson activities for the "Little Red Hen' suggested by various websites include:

--Talking with older children about whether the Hen's treatment of her housemates was justified. Could Hen have handled the situation in another way?

--Tying the book into a lesson about plant growth, and/or cake making.

--Talking about Teamwork and then how families work as a team.

-- Reading different versions and discussing the merits of one versus the other.

-- For younger children, having them recite and fill in the blanks as you read.

The Little Red Hen finds some grains of wheat on the ground, and asks for help in planting them. But her shiftless roommates, the dog, the cat, and the mouse, all refuse to help plant the wheat, water it, reap it, grind it, or bake a cake from the wheat. When the cake is ready to be eaten, they all want to help, but the hen eats the cake by herself. In the end, the lazy trio has learned to help with the household chores.

This is a nice simple story with a good rhythm and refrain (Not I! said the dog; Not I! said the cat; Not I! said the mouse) that should be very reassuring to a young child. The pictures in my 1974 edition (also by Galdone, I guess, since no illustrator is credited) are very nice, with lots of details to think about and enjoy. The moral is a good one for young children to learn as well.

This book has endured through the years because it has all of the elements that make a great kid's book; it is entertaining and comforting, teaches children where food comes from, and contains a lesson about the value of a day's work.

I highly recommend it.

You can never go far wrong with fairy tales and Paul Galdone! We have almost all his books, and they are the versions I almost always have read my sons. As in this version, he tells the story clearly, with interesting and detailed but not cluttered pictures. There is something about this particular story my sons have always loved. Perhaps it's because it's a pretty clear-cut ending---the ones who would not help don't get to share the treat, instead of the ending of many more modern tales where all learn their lesson and get included at the end! Kids often like things to be "fair but firm"! They also like the details of the cooking included here. Have a look at all of Galdone's books if you are interested in building up a fairy tale collection.

The Little Red Hen is a wonderful introduction to work ethic and the value of helping and doing things from scratch. It has nice repetitive elements which younger kids love and the step by step story telling much like "The House that Jack Built."

What do The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Gingerbread Man,and The Little Red Hen all have in common? These stories all teach a lesson to children about right from wrong. Good behavior is expected to be rewarded, and bad behavior is expected to be punished, leaving the story with a happy ending. This good over evil theme is present in many folktales, offering a sense of hope for the "good guy."

The Little Red Hen's plot is simple and direct, which is something to look for when evaluating folktales. It tells of a cat, a dog, a mouse, and a little red hen who live together in a cozy little house. The cat, dog, and mouse sleep away their days, leaving the little red hen to do all of the housework and yard-work by herself. She plants, tends to, and harvests wheat all by herself. She constantly asks who will help her, and the other animals always reply with, "Not I." Of course, after the little red hen bakes a cake with the flour she has made from the wheat, the cat, the dog, and the mouse do not hesitate to help her eat it.

However, the little red hen finally stands up for herself saying, "All by myself I planted the wheat, I tended the wheat, I cut the wheat, I took the wheat to the mill to be ground into flour. All by myself I gathered the sticks, I built the fire, I mixed the cake. And all by myself I am going to eat it!" Helplessly, the cat, the dog, and the mouse all watch the little red hen eat the entire cake. The happy ending is that the little red hen, the "good," is rewarded for all of her hard work, and that the cat, the dog, and the mouse, the "bad," learn a lesson. They learn that being lazy has no benefits and that helping others does. Finally, change their ways, helping the little red hen with any work that has to be done.

Although this fictional folktale is about animals, children should see how it relates to "real life." For example, children may realize the importance of helping mom and dad do the dishes or other chores. Students may realize the importance of helping their teacher keep the classroom clean and picked up. The Little Red Hen is a wonderful story overall. The pictures are colorful and detailed and give the animals realistic human expressions. The story is predictable, with its repetition of, "`Not I,' said the cat. `Not I,' said the dog. `Not I,' said the mouse." Children can easily assume that the animals will not take part in anything that has to do with work, but will readily help eat the little red hen's cake. Hopefully, children will apply the little moral that The Little Red Hen has to offer to their own lives.

The little Red Hen is one of the cute stories out there for kids that actually have morals to implement within the story itself. It's teaches the moral of helping and what happens if you just sit down and do nothing but when the job is done, you would get nothing either if you don't help.

Little Red Hen found some wheat on the ground and did all the work of growing it, cutting it, grinding it and even to the baker to bake it into bread all by herself because the other animals refuse to even help her to do all of the process above. but in the end when it's all ready to be eaten, the rest jumped up to offer to help her to eat it, but of course, Little Red Hen won't have it their way, for she has done all the work by herself with none of their help so she could do without them this time too

The little red hen does all the work. She cuts the grass. She baked the bread. She planted the grass. She takes the grass to the miller. My favorite part was when the cat sat down and crossed his arms.

Teaches a valuable lesson about teamwork and helping out. Great illustrations. Easy to read for beginning readers. Paul Gladone has another winner!

We actually own three versions of the Little Red Hen, and all but this one I find a bit tedious to read in their repetition. Galdone manages to preserve the repetition that kids like so well, without making the story a drudgery to read.

Moreover, Galdone's illustrations make this book interesting, and very pleasant to read time and again. The sloth of the dog, cat and mouse are depicted in the most amusing detail, as is every nook and cranny of the house these unlikely four share. The Little Red Hen herself wears a persnickety expression throughout many of the illustrations, and I like the way that casts her in a slightly less glowing light. It adds a sort of complexity to the story. The book ends on the note of the dog, cat and mouse doing a great deal more to help out after the experience and leaves you with an image of each of them, looking properly shamed, whilst donning aprons and cleaning the house.

If you're looking for the ideal version of this story, Paul Galdone has certainly created it.

This book teaches kids how they should not be greedy and they should help someone if they want something in return. This book is about a hen who plants, cuts, beats, takes the wheat to the mill all by herself and bakes some bread. Then her friends want some when it is done but since they didnt help the hen eats it all by her self. This book is a really good book i think it can teach kids a lot.