The Little Red Hen: An Old Fable

by Heather Forest and Susan Gaber

Book Overview

Working together makes working fun.

A little Red Hen lived in a house, with a frisky dog, a cat, and a mouse. So begins this fresh look at a beloved old fable. The little Red Hen's frisky housemates--Dog, Cat, and Mouse--would rather play than settle down to daily chores such as planting, cutting, and grinding wheat. But when the wheat is used to make a delicious cake, the little creatures are more than happy to...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0874837952
• ISBN13: 9780874837957
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: August House Publishers
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 8.9" x 11.4"
• Age Range: 5 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

A Old-time favorite

A nicely illustrated version of a standard tale. And I wrote this "all by myself."

No cake for you!

Yeah yeah yeah. We all know the story. Hen does all the work then eats all the food. To be blunt with you, it's very difficult to read a Little Red Hen story without flashing back to Jon Scieszka's frantic fowl in "The Stinky Cheese Man". Sometimes, though, an author/illustrator team manages to hit all the right notes on a classic tale and a person's post-modern snarkiness is thrown out on its ear. You can keep your Paul Galdones. You can keep your Jerry Pinkneys. The Little Red Hen story I'm going to put my money on from here on in is by Heather Forest and Susan Gaber and devil take the consequences. You've all heard the tale before so I'll just summarize it quickly here. In this version you have your Little Red Hen (who evokes hen-ness with every step) as well as a cat, a dog, and a mouse. She plants wheat, farms it, takes it to the mill, and bakes it into a cake. Does anyone else help? Nope. Every time she asks (and she gives them more than one chance, to be fair) they answer in the negative. Then she bakes a delicious you-can-smell-it-off-the-page chocolate cake and surprise surprise, suddenly she's everyone's best friend. But it's no cake for you, layabout critters. Having learned their lesson the other animals now help the hen when she asks them and cake is had by all. Now I'm a fan of corgis. Call me a Queen Elizabeth wannabe, but I just think they're the sweetest looking breed of pup available on the market today. A few children's book illustrators have put their mark on that particular brand of doggie as well. It's hard to imagine anyone aside from Tasha Tudor including a corgi in a story, so credit Susan Gaber for her vision. Now, Gaber's thick paints in this story evoke a kind of early Americana classic look. The colors are vibrant and stand out when it really matters. Best of all, Gaber works in all kinds of amazing images in the story. There's a moment when the Red Hen looks seriously peeved, her eyelids closed at half-mast, her beak set in a moue of barely contained distain for her lazy companions. Each painting contains just the right amount of energy and action, but the artist never makes the animals look like anything but real animals. When the Red Hen cuts the grain she does it with her beak. When she pulls it to the mill it drags behind her in a sack tied from her neck. And not an opposable thumb to be seen. If there's a flaw with these pictures, it actually goes back to that deliciously adorable corgi I mentioned earlier. What's cuter than a corgi pup? A corgi pup with a blue blanket, of course! Problem is, Gaber got addicted to the pup with blanket image. Once was sweet. Twice still elicited an "awww." But about the fourth or fifth time it appeared in a picture you began to wonder if the blue blanket carried a significance above and beyond the basic Little Red Hen storytime. Is this the corgi version of Linus from "Peanuts"? If so, should we worry about the corgi's deep dark past and

Nothing different from traditional tale but well illustrated

This is a colorfully illustrated retelling of the classical children's story. When Little Red Hen finds some seeds nobody will help her plant, harvest, grind, or bake the wheat but everyone wants to help when it comes time to eat the cake. Beautifully illustrated in bright colors that will hold a child's interest, The Little Red Hen is a great early reading book and highly recommended.