What age is the little red hen for?

For generations, kids have enjoyed participating in this fable, with its fun repetition, and the same should be true in this LITTLE RED HEN by Jerry Pinkney. Illustrations are classical Pinkney, and his realistic, sensitive watercolors are large on the page. The round pig is mud-streaked sloth itself, the goat is a wiry whiner, and the rat lurks in beady-eyed mischief. As a fun touch, Pinkney adds a self-portrait as the kind-hearted miller.

All of the animals are colorful, delicately drawn, and so expressive. Even their eyes change from the time they gather around the hen, each pleading his case, to the moment they turn away, shirking any responsibility. With art like this to his name, it's no surprise that Jerry Pinkney has won five Caldecott Medals, five Coretta Scott King Awards, and three New York Times Ten Best Illustrated Awards, among many other honors.

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About Susanna Davidson

Susanna Davidson (Author)
Zanna Davidson enjoyed riding a Shetland pony called Jampot as a little girl, but deep down, she's always preferred dreaming up her own adventures. Zanna worked on a farm, and as a builder in Zimbabwe, before becoming a writer. She is the author of over forty books. Zanna currently lives in North London.

Seo Kim (Illustrator)
S

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About Daniel Postgate

Born in Whitstable in 1964, Daniel is the son of the film-maker and author, Oliver Postgate. After school he worked as a chef in local restaurants and as an apprentice box-painter. In 1987 he went to London and worked as a freelance cartoonist for the Radio Times and Sunday Times. It was in 1994 that Daniel had his first book published, and this is now the b

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5.0 out of 5 stars Child's Story & Learning to read book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 19, 2014

Lovely story about a little red hen, who despite having 3 animal friend's has to plant grain, raise the wheat, mill & bake the bread all by herself, & then eat's it all herself! Cute illustration, simple for 4-6 age group perhaps & a nice story for parent's at bedtime too.

4.0 out of 5 stars Fine

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 30, 2017

5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 2, 2016

I love this book. A moral for all children.

5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 2, 2016

5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 16, 2015

My daughter absolutely loved the illustrations and the simple easy to follow story.

What age is the little red hen for?

The Little Red Hen, 1918 title page

What age is the little red hen for?

What age is the little red hen for?

The Little Red Hen is an American fable first collected by Mary Mapes Dodge in St. Nicholas Magazine in 1874.[1] The story is meant to teach children the importance of hard work and personal initiative.

The story[edit]

A hen living on a farm finds some wheat and decides to make bread with it. She asks the other farmyard animals to help her plant it, but they refuse. The hen then harvests and mills the wheat into flour before baking it into bread; at each stage she again asks the animals for help and they refuse. Finally, with her task complete, the hen asks who will help her eat the bread. This time the animals accept eagerly, but the hen refuses them stating that no one helped her with her work and decides to eat the bread herself. She then runs away with it.

Background and adaptations[edit]

The tale is based on a story Dodge's mother often told her. Originally the other animals besides the hen consist of a rat, a cow, a cat, a dog, a duck, and a pig.[1] Later adaptations often reduce the number of other animals to three.

The story was likely intended as a literature primer for young readers, but departed from highly moralistic, often religious stories written for the same purpose. Adaptations throughout the 1880s incorporated appealing illustrations in order to hold the reader's attention as interest became more relevant to reading lessons. Repetitive vocabulary is still used in adaptations in order to encourage learning for very early readers.[citation needed] A 2006 picture book adaptation by Jerry Pinkney was well-received for similar reasons.

An animated adaptation of the story titled The Wise Little Hen was produced by Walt Disney Productions in 1934. It is notable for the first appearance of Donald Duck as one of the lazy animals who refuses to help the hen.

Revisions[edit]

Politically themed revisions of the story include a conservative version based on a 1976 monologue from Ronald Reagan. This version features a farmer who claims that the hen is being unfair by refusing to share the bread and forces her to do so, removing the hen's incentive to work and causing poverty to befall the farm.[2] Another version satirizes capitalism by depicting the hen promising the animals slices of bread if they make it, but keeping the largest slice for herself despite not doing any work. A version by Malvina Reynolds adapts the story into a pro-work socialist anthem as the hen retains the fruits of her labor, saying "And that's why they called her Red."[3]

An episode of the animated series Super Why! features a revision of the story. In the episode, the Super Readers change the ending so that the hen tells the animals why she needs their help and they listen, enabling them to help her finish the corn bread so that she shares it with them.

See also[edit]

  • The Ant and the Grasshopper, an Aesop fable with a similar moral
  • The Gigantic Turnip

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Mary Mapes Dodge (1874). St. Nicholas. Scribner. pp. 680–.
  2. ^ "Little Red Hen ~ The Political Spin ~ Quite Amusing!!!". Sodahead.com. Retrieved 2011-12-31.
  3. ^ "The Little Red Hen".

  • The Little Red Hen: An Old English Folk Tale (HTML version), Retold and Illustrated by Florence White Williams, Saalfield Publishing Company, 1918, available from Project Gutenberg

What age group is the Little Red Hen for?

Age recommendation: Suitable for all the family, ages 3+.

What is the moral of the story of the Little Red Hen?

The moral of the story of Little Red Hen is that “One must work hard to rip overboard and also that one must help others”. The Little Red Hen asks several other animals on the farm to help her collect wheat, harvest it, take it to the mill to be ground and then bake a loaf of bread, but now one helped her.

Should the Little Red Hen share the bread?

After doing all the work herself, the Little Red Hen then asks who will help her eat the bread, and all the farm animals volunteer. Alas, the Little Red Hen decides to share the bread only with her chicks, realizing that she is the only one who did the work.

What is the problem in the Little Red Hen?

What is the problem in the story? The Little Red Hen doesn't want the other animals to help her. What is the action in the story? The Little Red hen does all the work herself to plant the wheat, harvest the wheat, mill the wheat, and bake the bread.