Folktales Retold is a class in which the kindergarten and first grade students meet two times a week during Silent Reading time to listen to picture books of folktales.

We have read several versions of Little Red Riding Hood. Some were retellings of the traditional story, such as Richard Scarry’s Little Red Riding Hood, Gennady Spirin’s Little Red Riding Hood, and Patricia C. McKissack’s Flossie and the Fox. Another told the story from the wolf’s point of view, Toby Forward’s The Wolf’s Story: What Really Happened to Little Red Riding Hood. We read versions that originated in other cultures, Ed Young’s Lon Po Po: A Red Riding Hood Story from China, and Niki Daly’s Pretty Salma: A Little Red Riding Hood Story from Africa. We finished with another folktale with similar story elements, Richard Scarry’s The Wolf and the Kids.

Now we are reading versions of The Three Little Pigs. We started with Paul Galdone’s retelling of the traditional tale, The Three Little Pigs. James Marshall’s The Three Little Pigs has a change of setting that adds a lot of humor to the story. Susan Lowell’s The Three Little Javelinas retells the story set in the American Southwest. Mark Teague’s The Three Little Pigs and the Somewhat Bad Wolf has a humorous twist to it. In his book Revolting Rhymes, Roald Dahl retells “The Three Little Pigs” with a disturbing twist that involves Little Red Riding Hood. Eugene Trivizas turns the tables in many delightful ways in his The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig.

The students are quick to observe and discuss similarities and differences in the versions of the stories. They are encouraged to write their own version of one of these stories!