What is the Story of Little Red? The story of Little Red Riding Hood is found in many cultures.  The English/North American version is by the Grimm Brothers.  However, other versions are known in Italian, German, French, Japanese, Korean and Chinese.

PART 1:  Divide the class into 5 groups.  Each group will pick a version of the story and take a few minutes to read it.  Click on the link next to your group number to go to the story.  While you read, notice how Little Red is depicted (what kind of person she is) and what the wolf does and how the story ends.
Group 1:  American version by the Grimm Brothers.
Group 2:  Italian version (The False Grandmother)
Group 3:  Italian version (The Wolf and Three Girls)
Group 4:  French version (by Charles Perrault)
Group 5:  German version (by Joachim Ringelnatz)

Have each group report to the class what their story was about.  How did the story portray Little Red?   Was there a hidden lesson in your story?  What is a metaphor? Did your story use a metaphor?  What is anthropomorphic?  Can you give me an example of anthropomorphic characteristics from the story?  Which story is the correct one? Or is there a correct story?  Why are the stories so different?  Do you know a different version from another culture that you can share with the class?

PART 2: Return to page 1 and participate in a class discussions about the images.

Back to page 1

What did the artist mean?  Look at the link: PBS Art 21 webpage for Kiki Smith
or view the Art 21 season 2 video.  Kiki Smith's interview starts at 15:15 and similar wolf and girl images are shown at 24:50.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York has an in-depth interactive webpage
about Kiki Smith's show called Prints, Books and Things.