Stories for Growing
Cover of The Little Red HenAge guidance pending

The Little Red Hen

Paul Galdone

Age guidance pending

We haven’t confirmed a numerical age range for this book yet.

A parent reports repeated requests from her son and describes a book-club activity based on the hen’s chores.

The hen’s housemates decline the work needed to turn wheat into a cake. She carries out each job herself. When the others want the result, she sets a boundary; the closing account says they subsequently help.

Recommended by Baby Toddler Book Club

Find at Bookshop.org Find on Amazon

Choose your preferred shop and check the edition there. These are standard links; no affiliate commission is earned in this preview.

What children see in the story

At separate stages, the hen’s stated intention is immediately followed by doing the promised work.

Why it’s on these shelves

Following through
The hen’s housemates, a cat, a dog and a mouse, won’t help, so she says she will do it herself: plant and tend the wheat, then make the flour into a cake. Each time she says she will do a job, she does it.

Why pick it up?

The hen’s work produces the cake, and the housemates become helpers.

A note for parents

This version makes a cake, not the bread found in other retellings. The parent notes that her child enjoyed repeating the refusals; consider that imitation risk when reading.

Where this recommendation comes from

Baby Toddler Book Club

A parent reports repeated requests from her son and describes a book-club activity based on the hen’s chores.

Read Baby Toddler Book Club’s recommendation
Sources and review status

We have checked source descriptions and drafted the value mapping. We have not personally reviewed the full book. The value labels, situation assignments, and parent notes remain provisional.

Publisher or literacy resource · Original recommendation

Our explanation of the value fit is separate from the original reviewer’s judgment. Their inclusion here does not imply an endorsement of Stories for Growing.

Another good example

Browse more values