Little Red With A Twist The Little Adventures of Wolf and Red:​To Grandmother's House

Little Red draped her little red cloak with a little red hood around herself as she ran into the kitchen to pack a little basket with treats that she had made the night before. “I’m almost ready!” Little Red exclaimed. “Wolf is coming, too. He will be here any minute.”


“Do you have your muffins?” her mother said. “Pack extra for a trail snack.”


“I have them! Bye Mama!” exclaimed Little Red as she ran into the garden where Wolf was smelling the roses.

Little Red and Wolf started over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house they went. The trail winded through the trees, and Little Red was glad she had her friend. The pathway weaved around rocks and jumped over tree roots. Soon the children grew tired and hungry, their feet dragged, and their tempers grew thin.

The children neared the little cottage where Grandmother patiently awaited their arrival while tending to her garden. Though little, the cottage had a vast garden with towering rose bushes and a fruitful vegetable garden, containing the freshest greens and potatoes in the whole wood. The smell of potato pie wafted from the open windows.
 
Wolf said, with a rumble from his tummy, “Wow, I’m hungry… I wish I had a snack.”


“Well I packed a snack,” said Little Red with emphasis.

“Give me one then!” yelled Wolf as he snatched the basket out of Little Red’s hand and devoured a muffin.


“No, it’s mine!” exclaimed Little Red. “What big teeth you have; you are going to eat them all!”


“I do not have big teeth!” said Wolf as he dropped the basket, offended. “Why are you being so mean?”


“You took my muffins!”


“You wouldn’t share!”


“You didn’t ask!”


As Little Red and Wolf shoved each other back and forth, a voice carried over the garden bushes.


“Children, what is going on here?”


Little Red and Wolf shouted at the same time, pointing their fingers at each other.

“Pick up the basket, please, and tell me what happened without yelling. Wolf, you go first,” said Grandmother, calmly.


Wolf took a deep breath and said, “Little Red wouldn’t share, so I took a muffin from her, and then she made fun of my teeth, so I pushed her.”


“But Wolf didn’t ask for a muffin!” exclaimed Red.


Grandmother knelt down by the children, picking up the basket of muffins, “these look very delicious. Now, Little Red, when your friend is hungry and you have food to spare, the kind thing to do is share, and insulting appearances is never okay.”


“I know, Gramma, I was just so mad he took my basket away,” lamented Little Red, “I’m sorry, Wolf.”

“It is okay to feel mad, Little Red, but you have to share your feelings instead of calling people names,” explained Grandmother. “Now Wolf, if you want to share a snack, asking is the nicest thing to do and it is always best to use your words instead of pushing your friends.”


“I’m sorry I took your basket and pushed you, Little Red” Wolf said, turning to Little Red and eyeing the basket of muffins.


“Here, have a muffin, I packed extra,” shared Little Red.


Grandmother smiled, “let’s enjoy our muffins inside, I have juice and fresh potato pie!”


After enjoying the muffins, the children were full and content; all feelings of annoyance had drifted away. Little Red grabbed her little red cloak with the little red hood as Wolf picked up the basket, now loaded with potato pie and fresh vegetables from Grandmother’s garden.
 
Little Red and Wolf started through the woods, and over the river back to Mother’s house they went. Little Red was once again happy she had her friend for when they grew tired and hungry again, the potato pie was shared without worry or complaint.


The End
Katie Rutz-Robbins for the Museum of Teaching and Learning ©




Need more Little Red Riding Hood stories? Check out the
University of Northern Iowa Rod Library’s Little Red Riding Hood book list
for many different versions of the tale!
For older readers, Goodreads had a list of longer Little Red retellings.


Watch The Indianapolis Public Library’s Little Red Riding Hood read aloud (adapted by Mandy Ross and illustrated by Anja Rieger): https://vimeo.com/88337718
 


To print your own little book of our little story, CLICK HERE
Simply print and secure the pages together!




Discussion Questions for Adults (and older children):

• How would you adapt the story of Little Red Riding Hood?
• What would you change?
• What would you keep the same?
• What themes would you focus on?
• This adaptation was written with young audiences in mind. If you were writing a Little Red Riding Hood adaptation for a teenage or young adult audience, what aspects of the story would you focus on?
• What would you make the goal or lesson of the story?
• How would you use language to convey the story's attitude?
• How would you change the classic characters of Little Red Riding Hood (Red, the wolf, the grandmother and the huntsman)?
• In this story, why is the grandmother the facilitator of Red and Wolf’s argument?
• What other lessons can we convey using the story and characters of Little Red Riding Hood?
• Why do we retell fairy tales?
• What draws us to them?
• What makes fictional stories good vehicles for learning?

Discussion Questions for Children:

• Have you heard the story of Little Red Riding Hood?
• What would you have done if you were Little Red and Wolf was hungry?
• What would you have done if you were Wolf and wanted one of Little Red’s muffins?
• What could Wolf have done instead of grabbing the muffin?
• How would you feel if you were Little Red?
• How would you feel if you were Wolf?
• What did you learn from Little Red’s grandmother?

Funding for this article has been provided, in part, by California Humanities and the State of California through the California State Library (Grant Number CC20-3010).


Katie Rutz-Robbins for the Museum of Teaching and Learning ©