Traditional Literature

Little Red Riding Hood
Jerry Pinkney
Traditional Literature
PreK-2

     Jerry Pinkney’s “Little Red Riding Hood” is a good example of the story’s retelling.  The characters are all traditional, including Little Red Riding Hood, her grandmother, the wolf and the woodcutter.  The setting includes Red Riding Hood leaving her small cottage in the woods, walking through the woods and then her grandmother’s house.  The problem in this story is the hungry wolf eating Red and her grandmother whole.  Thankfully the woodcutter notices something wrong in footsteps outside of the grandmother’s house and resolves the problem by killing the wolf and cutting the girl and her grandmother out of its stomach all in one piece.  The theme of this story is to not trust strangers, or to not believe everything you see.  The stranger aspect comes in play when Red talks to the wolf and trusts him right away, being the young, naïve character she is.  She should have not believed that the wolf was her grandmother just because he was dressed in her clothing.  This is a “g-rated” version of this tale, although there are still some gruesome parts.  Earlier retellings of this story include a sexual aspect, such as Little Red Riding Hood playing the “dumb” girl who gets taken advantage of by the wolf, a metaphor for a strong, overpowering man.

                This story is told pretty straight forward as far as plot goes.  It is an appropriate retelling for a children’s book.  The illustrations are done in watercolor and they are extremely attractive to look at.  They are colorful and portray each character’s true personality, such as even when Red believes that the wolf is harmless; he is still painted with a scary face with large, sharp teeth.  There is great detail in the drawings as well, especially in the backgrounds.  The woods are drawn with faces on the trees, which would be an interesting topic to discuss when talking about the book’s illustrations.

                This retelling clearly takes on the usual characteristics of a folktale.  Each character has a trait associated with them, such as Red and her naïve nature, or the wolf and his scary, mean antagonist position.  The woodcutter is the brave on who “saves the day” as well.  The plot is extremely straight forward and the reader can understand exactly what is occurring in the story.  The reader can understand that the wolf is going to be problematic in the story as it unfolds, and the conflict is resolved in a way in which you can see that it is over.  You are unsure about where the story takes place besides at the cabins in the woods, and the theme is similar to most of the retellings of this story.

                I would most definitely put this book in my classroom library.  I believe that traditional literature is extremely important for students to be able to read, especially different forms.  It would also be interesting because many times students have been told these folktales previously, so it would help them to become a better reader when they can understand what is occurring in the story.  Because of the fact that this retelling is very traditional and that it has very nice illustrations, I think that this would be a great addition to anybody’s classroom library.

                This would work with Pre-K-5 Standards of Identifying character, settings and major events in a story.  It would also work with Ma.8 Analyze the meanings of literary texts by drawing on knowledge of literary concepts and genres.