While the eponymous cock (AKA rooster), mouse and hen argue about who will do the chores and make the breakfast—much as in the famous fable of The Little Red Hen—a dastardly fox plots to kidnap them and turn them into dinner for his hungry kits in this retelling of an English folktale. Fortunately, the cleve red hen knows what to do, when she and her housemates are put into a sack. Taking advantage of the napping fox, she has each of her companions cut their way out, and replace themselves with a stone of their size, fooling the fox and making good their escape. Having saved them all, the hen is rewarded by her companions' new willingness to help out around the house...

Although well familiar with the American fable of The Little Red Hen, which was first recorded by Mary Mapes Dodge in 1874, in the pages of St. Nicholas Magazine, I was not aware of the story of The Cock , the Mouse and the Little Red Hen, which I think must surely be a variation of it, or at least related to it in some way. The earlier part of the tale here is very similar to that in The Little Red Hen, with the episode with the fox added in. This particular formulation of the tale apparently first appeared in 1907, in Félicité Lefèvre's illustrated book of the same name. Leaving all of that aside, I found this a fun little tale, appreciating the hen's industry and cleverness. As a fox lover, my heart ached for the hungry little kits, but of course, I was still rooting for the kidnapped friends to escape. The accompanying artwork from author/illustrator Lorinda Bryan Cauley was lovely, and greatly enhanced my reading pleasure. Recommended to all young folklore enthusiasts. ( )

This book was taken place in a cottage. It's point of view was omniscient. I enjoyed reading this book because I thought it had a very good message to learn from. This book starts out talking about a very lazy mouse and cock and a Hen who did all of their chores. The main idea of this story is that one should not be lazy and take advantage of others who aren't lazy. Mostly, I liked the style of this book. The author uses repetitive words that the hen cock and mouse say, like "Not I". Every time the hen would ask them who is going to do a certain chore they both say not I . The Hen then does all the work because neither of them want to do the work. The plot in this book was very funny because as soon as the mouse and cock's lives were at stake and the hen made the plan for them to escape they immediately changed their attitudes about the chores. They also realized that it was their fault that they were all about to be eaten by the foxes because they weren't alert. I feel like this would be very beneficial to read to children because a lot of children don't like doing their chores. This will teach them to be alert and do their chores. ( )

classic ( )

I really liked this story as I have heard it many times before when I was younger. I really liked the way this one was told in particular because other versions I have heard are not geared toward children as much. I think this would be a fun book to read when talking about the folklore genre. I also think it is a fun book that students would enjoy reading on their own. I would like to have this story in a future classroom. ( )

A Cock, a Mouse, and a little red Hen lived in a pretty cottage on the top of a hill. The Cock and the Mouse were lazy, and always grumbling from breakfast time to the night. The red Hen did anything. The bad Fox lived across the hill with broken door. The four little fox kittens said to their father that they are so hungry. The father decided to go to another the hill where the cock, the mouse, and the hen lived to catch them for his kittens. The bad fox threw the cock, the mouse, and the hen into a sack. But the clever hen used her scissor to cut the sack and put stone back in. Three of them escaped from the bad fox. The cock and the mouse were no longer lazy and grumble anymore. Children understand that they should work hard and do their duty all the time.