Traditional Literature

Title: The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood
Author: Agnese Baruzzi and Sandro Natalini
Publisher: Templar Company
Genre: Fiction/ Fairy Tales
Pages: 18
How Found: Borders Books
Lexile: None listed.
Awards: None listed.
Plot Summary: This is a humorous version of events that supposedly took place before the well-known tale of Little Red and the Wolf. The Wolf writes a letter to Red asking her to help him improve his image, so she comes over and reforms him. She makes him take a bath, gives him a vegetarian menu, and other comical ideas. The problem is, Red gets jealous when Wolf is voted nicest in the forest, and plots revenge.
Relationship to Theme: Learning manners and getting along with others.
Personal Connection: I love the humorous take on the story (it reminded me of Scieszka's, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs). I also loved all the interactive details, such as little letters the reader can pull out of envelopes, pop-up pages, wheels to turn, etc.
Possible Readers: I think any children who are familiar with the original tale would like this, but I wouldn't use it with really young children because the interactive parts would probably get lost or damaged. So maybe grades K-3?
Instructional Ideas: It would be fun to read this with The True Story of the Three Little Pigs or The Stinky Cheese Man and compare/contrast. Or, children could come up with their own humorous versions of other well-known tales.

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Title: Favorite Greek Myths
Author: Mary Pope Osborne
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Genre: Fiction / Mythology
Pages: 81
How Found: Box of children's books given to me by a co-worker.
Lexile: 870L
Awards: None listed
Plot Summary: This book contains an introduction, 12 Greek short myths, a reference section on Greek gods and goddesses, and a list of some modern words with Greek origins. (It includes the myths of Phaeton and Helios, Bacchus and King Midas, Ceyx and Alcyone, Minerva and Arachne, Apollo and Daphne, Echo and Narcissus, Ceres and Proserpina, Callisto and Arcus, Orpheus and Eurydice, Atalanta and Hippomenes, Cupid and Psyche, and Baucis and Philemon.)
Relationship to Theme: Classic myths include relationships gone awry, and lessons learned about dangerous emotions such as anger, vanity and jealousy.
Personal Connection: I feel strongly that all children should be exposed to these classic stories, since they are referenced so often and are so enjoyable to read. This particular collection is good because the stories are kept short and simple, and each is accompanied by a beautiful painting.
Possible Readers: The vocabulary and concepts are more sophisticated in this book, so I think it could be used as a read-aloud in grades 3-4, and maybe more independently for grades 5-7.
Instructional Ideas: This would be wonderful as a daily read-aloud for a unit on Greece. It is also great to help teach the origins of words. For instance, if you were teaching about spiders, then you could read about Arachne.