The Little Red Hen (Makes a Pizza)

The story of the industrious Little Red Hen is not a new one, but when this particular hen spies a can of tomato sauce in her cupboard and decides to make a pizza, the familiar tale takes on a fresh new twist. Kids will love following along as the hen, with no help from her friends the duck, the dog, and the cat, goes through the steps of making a pizza-shopping for supplies, making the dough, and adding the toppings. But despite their initial resistance, the hen's friends come through in the end and help out in a refreshing and surprising way.

Customer Reviews:

A moral story with a new moral

By Joshua Koppel - July 21, 2003

I read this book to a student during some volunteer work. While I liked the way the classic story had been made more urban in order to be more associational for many readers, I was disappointed in two places.The first is a little trivial, when the Hen needs cheese, it mentions all the cheese she has, including string cheese, but no mozzarella. Unfortunately, string cheese is mozzarella.But my real problem is that the original moral of the story, that the lazy animals do not benefit from the Hen's hard work. Instead they all get some pizza and are guilt-tripped into helping clean up.While I can accept the change in scenery (and pizza instead of bread), I have a hard time accepting that the moral has been changed.

Great book!

By cassandraandvixen - October 21, 1999

I received this book in the mail from a club by accident and kept it because my just-turned 3 year old and I enjoyed it so much. Children really enjoy repetitions (the cat, dog and duck constantly say "Not I." to pleas for help from the red hen. And then there are the numerous mentions about pickled eggplant which have become a joke in our house.) in this book, and it excites my daughter to "read" the next page before I do. It enforces a nice theme of helping each other and the pictures are wonderful. I intend to give it as a gift to several friends!

very cute - but I have mixed feelings about change in moral

By A Customer - June 14, 2000

I checked this out of the library thinking it would be an update of the classic tale. I loved the colorful illustrations and my daughter did enjoy the book. However, I had been expecting the typical story -- where those that didn't participate in helping didn't get to share the product. I was surprised that after all the rounds of "not I" the other animals did eat the pizza. I'm not sure what the moral is supposed to be, or if it is one that I want for my daughter. Sure, I would like her to be generous and share, so if she models herself after the hen, great. But I don't want her to mimic the other animals attitudes toward helping out. The others do help with the dishes at the end, but still.... you just need to be aware of the change before you bring the book home.