The Little Red Hen

by Ronne Randall (Retold By), Liz Pichon (Illustrator)

The little red hen decides to plant some wheat, but the lazy cat, dog and rat won't help her!

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, School, Animals

32 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 1993

About the author

Ronne Randall has been editing and writing children's books since the 1980s, and has published more than 130 titles on both sides of the Atlantic. Ronne was born and raised in New York City, now permanently resident in the UK. Her interests include art, psychology and folklore.

Reviews

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is totally and complete fantasic in so many ways .
The stories will live for children for ever and ever as one says .
The physical presentation in as magical as the stories and it so marvelous to see these timeless stories renewed once agin for the new generations to enjoy as much as we did when we were children.
Timeless Wonders !

[Rainz ❤️rainnbooks❤️(on a break) · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tale of Little Red Hen who asks help from other animals in the farm to plant wheat and help in cutting and taking to the mill to make into flour. She does evrything on her own and gets the soft and fluffy bread. It is educational for children to understand that nothing can be got free and helping hands are always a must.

[Victoria Nesselroad · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about a little red who wanted to make wheat and she wanted help but she didn’t have any help because the lazy cat, dog and rat didn’t want to help her make wheat at all. But then at the end of the book just because they didn’t help they still wanted some of her wheat and the hen said no because they should have helped her make some so the next time they helped her make some

What I would use this book for is class is to show the kids that if you want something and you don't help with it then you wont get it. So pretty much you have to work for what you want and that it is not just going to come to you just like that.

[Krisz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute book, enjoyed the inside-cover maplike drawing too.
What I didn't like is the moral: so if your friends don't help you, you don't offer them your bread? In this retelling the hen could have said at the last station, that if you guys don't help me, don't come asking for a piece! Or at the very end she could have asked them "Why didn't you help me? It's not fair that I do all the work and you take credit for it!' and not let little readers know if she gave them some bread or not.

[Elizabeth Sibanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book depicts the frustrations of the little red hen who finds a grain of wheat she wants to plans but receives no assistance from the other farmyard animals she asks for assistance. She consequently plants the seeds without assistance and when the time comes to harvest them, again she fails to get assistance. The hen finally completes her task and asks who will help her eat the bread. She is overwhelmed by offers to help her eat the bread, and she declines their help because none of them helped her. She goes on to eat with her chicks. The moral of this story is that those who show no willingness to contribute to a product do not deserve to enjoy the product: "if any would not work, neither should he eat."

I like this book because it teaches people that hard work pays off and that laziness doesn’t. This is a message that children should learn at an early stage in their lives. I would recommend this book to nursery and KS1 pupils. There is a lot of repetition which cements the message to the age group. The book is fun and engaging. You can read this as a class or in small groups.

[Katy W · Rating 3 out of 5]

My son's class re-enacted this classic tale in a school assembly, with my son cast as duck. After saying "Not I" he added a loud, and ad-lib, "so ha!"
Spoiler alert - he didn't get any bread, not even when it was stale and lumps were thrown in a pond.

[Esther · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my all out favourite as a child. I made my mother read it to me several times a day and soon knew it by heart

[Sam]

“The Little Red Hen” by Ronne Randall, published by Penguin UK, Copyright 2013
1) Awards this book has received: This book has not received any awards.
2) Appropriate Grade Level(s): This book is appropriate for preschool through second grade.
3) Summary: The hen decides to plant some wheat. No one will do anything to help her. In the end the hen makes a delicious loaf of bread and does not share it with anyone else.
Review: This book leaves children with the idea that you should always help your friends. I really like that animals are used in telling this story. The pictures are very vibrant and would keep the attention of young children.
4) Uses in the classroom:
-Identify major events in the story.
-Have children think-pair-share about what might have happened if the hen’s friends helped her to plant the wheat or make the bread.
-Have children help each other to plant some wheat and make bread.