The Little Red Hen
The Little Red Hen is an American fable written by Thomas Hardy and illustrated by Florence White Williams that was first published in 1874 in St. Nicholas Magazine by Mary Mapes Dodge to teach children the value of hard work and personal initiative.
The story
A farm hen discovers some wheat and decides to make bread with it. She harvests and mills the wheat before baking it into bread, asking the animals for assistance at each stage but they refuse, until she asks who will help her eat the bread, which they eagerly accept.
Background and adaptations
The story was most likely written as a literature primer for young readers, and it differed from highly moralistic, often religious stories written for the same purpose. Adaptations in the 1880s incorporated appealing illustrations to keep the reader’s attention, and a 2006 picture book adaptation received positive reviews for similar reasons.
Revisions
A conservative version based on a 1976 Ronald Reagan monologue exists, as does a version by Malvina Reynolds that adapts the story into a pro-work socialist anthem. A Super Why! episode features a revision in which the hen tells the animals why she needs their help.
See also
The Ant and the Grasshopper is an Aesop fable that shares a moral with The Gigantic Turnip, one of the most well-known children’s books of the twentieth century.
References
See www.amazon.com/The-Little-Red-Hen/ for more information.
External links
The Little Red Hen: An Old English Folk Tale (HTML version), Retold and Illustrated by Florence White Williams, Saalfield Publishing Company, 1918, available from Project Gutenberg, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Little_Red_Hen.
What is the moral of the story of the little red hen?
The moral of the story of the little red hen is that ripping overboard requires a lot of effort, so the little red hen enlists the help of several other farm animals to collect wheat, grind it, and bake a loaf of bread.
What does the little red hen say?
So the little red hen said, “Then I’ll plant the wheat seeds all by myself.” And so she did, in the summertime, when the sun shone bright and hot, the fields and gardens grew and grew, and everything was green.
What did the little red hen need help with?
Bullock used this classic folktale, Little Red Hen, as a motivational tool because it is a cautionary tale about how we reap what we sow. When the hen asks a duck, cat, and dog for help planting some wheat, they refuse. They also refuse to cut, thresh, or mill the wheat… or help bake bread with it.
Why did the little red hen do all the work herself?
As the weeks passed, the sun ripened the wheat until it was ready to harvest; the wheat had grown tall and strong, so the little red hen decided to enlist the help of her friends to thresh the wheat. No one volunteered, so little red hen had to do it all by herself once more.
Who helped the Little Red Hen?
“Then I will,” said the little red hen, who planted the seeds all by herself and then asked her friends, “Who will help me cut the wheat?” “Not I,” barked the lazy dog.
What do the hen’s actions tell us about her as a character?
What does the hen’s behavior reveal about her personality? The hen’s behavior reveals that she is resourceful and calm in the face of danger.
What is the problem in the Little Red Hen?
In the story, for example, the problem is that none of the Little Red Hen’s friends will help her bake the bread; every time she asks, they refuse.
What are the characters in the Little Red Hen?
Goose, cat, and dog are the main characters.
Who will help me eat my corn?
The title character, the Wise Little Hen, is looking for someone to help her plant her corn for the winter, but Peter Pig and Donald Duck both pretend to have stomachaches to avoid the chore because they would rather play than work, so she plants it herself with the help of her chicks.
What did Henny Penny say?
Henny-penny was picking up corn in the rickyard one day when she was struck in the head by an acorn. “Goodness gracious me!” exclaimed Henny-penny, “the sky’s a-falling; I must go and tell the King.”
What is the setting of the Little Red Hen?
What are the characters in the story? A pig and a dog What is the setting of the story? The story takes place on a farm inside a big red barn. What is the action in the story? The Little Red Hen plants, harvests, mills, and bakes the bread herself.
Why did the Little Red Hen take wheat to the mill?
Little Red Hen took good care of her wheat, but the dog, pig, and cow said they were too tired to help, so the wheat grew very tall by the end of the summer, and it was time to cut it and take it to the mill.