Little Red Riding Hood

A. Title: Little Red Riding Hood: By the Brothers Grimm
B. Author: Trina Schart Hyman
C. Illustrator: Trina Schart Hyman
D. Publisher: Holiday House
E. Genre: Picture Book - Folklore/Fairy Tale
F. Reading Level: 1-3
G. Awards: Caldecott Honor Award

H. Summary: This is the common fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood by the Brothers Grimm, retold by Trina Schart Hyman. Little Red Riding Hood, Elisabeth, was given a basket of wine, bread, and sweet butter to take to her sick grandmother's house far away in the woods. Elisabeth's mother made her promise to stay on the path, go straight there and straight back, and to always mind her manners. The walk was about a half an hour away from town, and while Little Red Riding Hood was walking through the woods she met an old, clever wolf. He found out what she was doing, where she was going, and what for before he side tracked poor Elisabeth. She said goodbye to the wolf and left the path to go collect flowers for her sick grandmother. While Elisabeth was picking flowers, the wolf ran all the way to grandmother's house, and he ate her up in one gulp! When Elisabeth got to the house, the door was open and she walked up to the bed. The wolf ate her up too and fell asleep full bellied in grandmother's bed. His loud snoring caught the ear of a hunter passing by, and he came in and cut open the wolf to safe Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother.

I. Response: I've always liked the story Little Red Riding Hood, and I've been hearing it for as long as I can remember. This particular version has gorgeous illustrations that look to be paintings. The pages with the text have detailed flower borders with the other page being a full illustration with no words. The pictures are all bright and very detailed, especially the faces of the characters. I definitely want to incorporate all of the classic fairy tales/folklore into my future classrooms.

J. Teaching Ideas: Little Red Riding Hood is a great fairy tale, but right off the top of my head I couldn't think of very many teaching ideas. The main lesson plan that I could think of is to share this story while teaching a lesson or unit on folklore or fairy tale. The website for ReadWriteThink has a lesson plan dealing with analyzing fairy tales elements and general characteristics, compose an original fairy tale, and presenting the fairy tales to the class. Lesson Plan Central had a web page with links to 14 different lesson plans that deal with folklore and fairy tales. Online searches pull up lesson plan idea after idea, and Little Red Riding Hood is one that should definitely be included!