The Little Red Elf

Really cute book. I cracked up a bit reading it. I love that now I can do book comparisons each year and still be festive.

Amazing book for comparison with Little Red Hen.

I wanted to expand our Christmas book collection this year, and upon recommendation of a blog I frequent, I ordered The Little Red Elf. It's a cute story with great illustrations, fun humor, and the great message of the Little Red Hen (with a Christmas theme). My kids are 4 & 6 and they both enjoyed it. I did too!

Loved the beautiful illustrations. However, the ending is so weird, and obtuse for small children, showing a giant bag of "red hens" - completely nonsensical. O.K. for older kids who know about the Little Red Hen, I guess.

My daughter was immediately drawn to the illustrations of The Little Red Elf. And they are wonderful and very fitting to the story (five stars for the illustrations!)The story is a very cute take on the classic, The Little Red Hen.The four characters are a little red elf, a reindeer, a hare, and a penguin.The process they go through is planting a christmas tree, tending it, repotting it, moving it into the workshop, decorating it, and putting out milk and cookies. To which all the characters tell the little red elf that they will not help giving her a variety of excuses.The little red elf loves to work hard and smiles as she does her work despite not receiving any help. Finally, on Christmas morning when all the presents are under the tree the little red elf loses her temper and tells her friends that she did all of the work, so she will be the one to open the presents. The reindeer, penguin, and hare begin to cry and then ......the little red elf LETS THEM OPEN ALL OF THE PRESENTS. Wait, what? Inside of all of the presents are stuffed little red hens. An ironic and humorous nod to us parents who grew up reading the original Little Red Hen, but a terrible and confusing ending for young children.If the author had only added that they learned their lesson and all helped clean up the mess, or they saved the little elf a gift for her to open (no the elf does not get to open even one present, she stands back and watches her "friends" open all the gifts), or anything that would have addressed their bad behavior, this book could have been redeemed.However, the way the story is wrote the plot goes: The little red elf does all of the work, she has terrible friends, and in the end she does not get to open even one gift on Christmas. What a sad story.A much better modern take on The Little Red Hen for children that we love and reread often is  Manana, Iguana  in which a lizard wants to throw a party but none of her friends want to help after agreeing to. In the end she does not let them come to the party, however when they help clean up afterwards (and they feel poorly over their bad behavior), they all eat the leftovers together. What a wonderful lesson for children. I wish The Little Red Elf would have taken the same route.

This book is so stinkin' CUTE! I can't believe it, it's adorable. Now, it's not like the world needs yet another version of the Little Red Hen, but this is a sweet Christmas version of the story and definitely worth the read. McGrath has integrated the holiday them nicely into her version of the tale. The little red elf is a really hard worker and she has some of the laziest friends in the North Pole.Once upon a time, there was a reindeer, a penguin, a hare, and a little red elf. They all lived together in a comfy, cozy workshop.The reindeer liked to snooze in the straw.The penguin liked to relax in the bathtub.The hare liked to hibernate by the hearth.That left the little red elf to get all the workshop work done.She was filling some bird feeders, by herself, when she found a pinecone. Since none of her friends would help her plant it, she decided to do the job herself. When the time came to water it or bring it in to the workshop once it had grown, she was on her own.By the time she had strung the lights, decorated the tree, and baked cookies for Santa without any help, she had gotten a bit frustrated but tried to keep her holiday cheer. Of course, when she needed help to open all of those presents her friends came running."I will!" said the reindeer."I will!" yelled the penguin."I want the big one!" screamed the hare.This is the point where the little red elf loses it and yells that she is going to open the presents by herself. Of course her friends are shocked and begin to cry. The little red elf feels terrible, apologizes, and lets the open the gifts. Boy did they dive right in. Inside every box from Santa was a Little Red Hen doll. The reindeer, penguin, and hare are confused (as are some younger readers) but the little red elf understands and thinks they've gotten the perfect gifts.It's a cute story but I had two tiny issues. I wish there had been a bit more discussion regarding the reindeer, penguin, and hare's horrible and selfish behavior. Even my younger kids were aghast; we just talk about it a bit in class, so it's not really a big deal. (If you're looking for a version where the animal's realize how rude they've been, pick up Philemon Sturges's The Little Red Hen (Makes a pizza). ) My other issue is the ending - younger kids don't get it. I think the ending's humor is a little bit too sophisticated for the little ones.The real star of this book, the entire reason you want to check it out and pour over it with your kid (or by yourself), is Bonnet's absolutely scrumptious and adorable illustrations. She uses a style of drawing that I tend to associate with Japan (but it's not manga or chibi style) and she throws in fantastically funny little details. I just want to hug this book.Verdict:I will say it again, this book is so stinkin' cute!! Bonnet's illustrations are just wonderful and really make this Christmas version of The Little Red Hen worth the read. The Little Red Elf is a sweet holiday book that you should pick up from the library.Featured at an Abundance of Books, read full review here - [...]

Great story

Little red elf version of the little Red hen .. cute for Christmas