“Henny Penny”

Henny Penny
Author: Retold by Jim Lawrence 

Illustrator: Tim Hildebrandt

Genre: Traditional Literature

Grade Level: Pre-k to 2^ndgrade

The story begins an acorn hitting Henny Penny on the head which she assumes that the sky is falling. She panics and walks her way to tell the news to the king. First, she meets Cocky Locky. Upon hearing the news, he “Urk-urk-kadurk!” and follows along to tell the news to the king. Then they meet Ducky Wucky who is afraid and “Snick-snock-snack! Quack, quack, quack!” upon hearing the news. He too joins in with the gang to tell the news to the king. Then they meet Goosey Loosey who get very concerned and “Hinkety-honk” upon hearing the news. She too joins the gang to tell the news to the king. Then they meet Turkery Lurkey who “Hobble-gobble, wibble-wobble!” upon hearing the news and joins in the gang to tell the news to the king. Lastly they meet a cunning Fox who tells them he knows the way to the king. The gang blindly follows him. He leads them to a tunnel which gets darker and darker. This concerns Henny Penny. She becomes doubtful and lags behind her gang. They disappear onto the tunnel while she escapes the inevitable faith of the rest of the gang. She goes back onto the barnyard and lives happily ever after.

Thoughts

This is very first time that I have actually read the book. I have heard this story before but I never really felt the need to read the book. It was just shocking to know how the books ends. And to be honest, I am kind of mad with Henny Penny. Aside from that, this would be a good story to tell Pre-K to 2^nd grades as it teaches us about being clever, judging the situation and not following other blindly (cough). This is a moral story that we can tell little kiddos on never ever follow strangers and always ALWAYS think before doing anything that you will regret. This book will also be good to teach little kiddos the sounds of the animals.