The Little Red Hen

I love this rendition of The Little Red Hen. It's the story of a hard-working little red hen and her lazy friends who, though unwilling to help plant the wheat, tend it, harvest it, mill it, or bake it into a cake, are VERY willing to help eat the fruit of her labor. Some renditions of this story have the red hen share it with the friends anyway, but this to me undermines the very important message for children that "If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat." (2 Thess. 3:10). And interestingly enough, the friends decide to put forth the effort in the future when they know it's the only way to reap the rewards. The illustrations are quite attractive and very cute: the "hangdog" expressions of the repentant friends at the end, the dog lounging in the hammock early on, etc. The text is rhythmic and enjoyable to read. "`Not I,' said the dog. `Not I,' said the cat. `Not I,' said the mouse." My pre-reading children can repeat this part of the story with me. I highly recommend this book to all who are reading with preschoolers or elementary-aged children. It has good lessons and has also been greatly enjoyed by my children (ages 7 ½ on down). I've also given it as a gift before, and anticipate doing that again in the future.

Just a cute story. I remember it from when I was little so I wanted it for nostalgia. Will hopefully keep forever.

This is one of our daughter's favorite fairy tales and she just turned one. The story teaches great lessons such as being helpful and working hard, plus the illustrations are vivid and engaging. Every time we read her this story she is captivated the whole story through. I plan on getting this whole collection from Paul Galdone, his versions of the fairy tales are classic and truly engaging for young readers. Highly recommend!

Classic book, given as a babyshower gift!!

I read this to our 3,4 and 5 year old. They love this book. Lovely illustration, great story for teaching about helping. Easy to read and perfect length. Highly recommend.

i miss old books and their illustrations, so cool to find this

Basically we had this story as children it's one of my more favorite ones although it applies less in the US compared to what it did when I was a kid. The version we had featured the hen making bread after growing and processing wheat to flour and in the end she does not share it with any of the lazy bum animals. I'm this book she makes cake. In the end in both books the lazy animals decide they'll help the hen from now on so they too can share in the rewards of labor. Obviously what is taught still applies but I think more so in Asia than in the US these days but it is still worth teaching to children. This book is a hard cover copy and nicely illustrated and would be fine for teaching children to read once they start to grasp basic words.

Read this to my son as a bedtime story and he loved hearing it