The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza

Bibliographical information: The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza
Author: Philemon Struges
Illustrator: Amy Walrod
Publisher: Dutton Children's Books, 1999.
Genre: Picture Book/Traditional Literature (Folktale)

Plot : This is a story about our beloved Little Red Hen. Instead of baking bread, this book tells the tale of how she bakes a scrumptious pizza. Just like the original story of the Little Red Hen, the characters in this story do not want to help the Hen fetch the ingredients she needs to bake the pizza. The hen who has a tolerant attitude towards her lazy friends ends up doing all the shopping. Sadly, the hen ends up running to the store several times. Each time she asks help for making the pizza, the friends respond "Not I!" This leaves the Little Red Hen to do the tasks by herself. After the exhausting chore of making and baking the pizza, it is ready to eat. This time, her friends' responses are different when the Hen asks "Would anybody like some pizza." The animals happily agree. What is surprising is that the lazy friends agree to do the dishes for the Little Red Hen.

Theme: People will surprise you in the end.

Illustrations: The pictures in this story are bright and visually appealing to the eye. On one of the pages, the Red Hen is climbing up a hill with her supplies and utensils in a red wagon. One can easily tell that the Hen is very independent because she is shown clutching onto a book titled "The do it yourself Guide to sink installation and other things. The pictures brilliantly complement this alternate version of The Little Red Hen

My two cents: I enjoyed reading this story. If I were a teacher, I would read the original story first. Then, I would read the alternate version. After reading both stories of the same character, I would initiate a class discussion on which story they liked better and why. They could even compare and contrast both these books. The Little Red Hen was one of my favorite books as a child, and I was happy to be introduced to the little Red Hen in a different type of situation.

Extension activity: This is a journal/writing activity. Was there ever a time you felt like you got stuck with doing most of the work and no one would help you? How did it make you feel. Or, was there ever a time you let somebody else do all your work? How did they act towards you? Write at least a few sentences in a journal.