Story Time Monday

We had such fun reading Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs yesterday in Story Time.

You would think that kids would be frightened by stories of the "big bad wolf," but I loved them as a child and so did my preschoolers. Lucy Cousins' retelling of these old classics and her graphic illustrations spared none of the scary drama of the visit of the wolf to Grandma's house and his terrorizing of the pigs. The children seemed to relish seeing the wolf eat Grandma in one gulp; perhaps because on the next page the hunter cuts the wolf open and out steps Grandma and Red Riding Hood, none the worse for having been inside the wolf.

The wolf doesn't have such luck in the three pigs story. At the end of it he has been boiled in a pot and eaten by the pigs for dinner. The last line of Cousins' retelling is "Bye, Bye, wolf!" to which my little students cheerfully joined in.

One of the great things about both of these tales is how the children can join in the story at various times. In Red Riding Hood, it's easy for them to pick up the call and repeat that takes place when Red sees "Grandma" in bed:

"What big eyes you have, Grandma." "Better to see you with my dear. "
"What big ears you have, Grandma." "Better to hear you with, my dear. "
"What big teeth you have, Grandma." "Better to EAT you with, my dear!"

And of course, they all knew how to join in when the wolf calls out to the pigs and the pigs reply:

"Little pig, little pig, let me in!" "Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin! "

And they brought the house down when they joined in for the climatic "I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll BLOW your house down!"

There's a reason why these old stories are still told today, and the fact that they are just plain fun to read and share together is certainly one of them.