We all know the classic fairy tales of Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs, and The Ugly Duckling. In this assignment, my students had a great time applying all we had been studying with dialogue, point of view, and voice as they became a main character from their favorite fairy tale, and told the story from THEIR perspective. We story mapped first, and made sure we stuck to the real story while we included details and dialog pertinent to our character, the story-teller. Enjoy these tales! Perhaps my students will convince you that THESE are the true stories after all??
The Three Little Pigs and The Polite Wolf by Maeve (6th grade)
I am sure you all see me as the Bad Guy, the big bad wolf, and maybe even the villain. But I am sure that after you see my side of the fairy tale, I will change your mind.
One day I was reading the newspaper when I heard the phone ring. It was one of my great friends Brick Pig inviting me over for dinner.
Excitedly, I immediately said “yes” and hung up the phone. I started making a salad with no tomatoes, just how Brick Pig likes it.
Fast forward to when it was 6:00. I had the salad ready and was overwhelmed with excitement to see my good friend again. I was all ready, except for one thing: I was not sure which house on Fairy Tale Dr. was Brick Pig’s. I was too excited to realize that his name was, in fact, Brick Pig. So, I went up to a house made out of straw. The house looked incredibly unstable, so instead of knocking, I tried to whistle like any polite animal would. (Not questioning the construction choices.)
But I had forgotten that I am a wolf and wolves can not whistle. So instead of whistling like I had intended, a “Huff!” and a “Puff!’ came out of my mouth and knocked the house right down. And an angry pig came with it!
“I am so sorry!” I declared. “I was just trying to whistle!”
“Tring to whistle?” asked the pig. A pig who would choose to build a house out of straw could not understand this misunderstanding.
I was a little down so I took out a piece of bubble gum and I went to the house right next door which was made out of sticks! (Who builds these houses?) I was not sure what to do. The knocking and whistling was not the answer. So I blew a bubble as I waited and… “Pop!” As the bubble popped the house fell. (Again, as you can see, wolves are not the most talented when it comes to using their mouths.)
I quickly ran as fast as my four legs could carry me trying to dodge the complaining pig. There was only one more house, this had to be my friend Brick Pig’s house. The house looked a lot more stable, but as I came closer, I saw a note in messy writing “the front door is broken”. So like any logical wolf, I looked in the back of the house for a back door, but there was no back door. I did not want to break a window, so… there was only one thing to do: go in the chimney.
Although I was a little hesitant at first, I made my way down the chimney avoiding as many comwebs as I could.
I finally made it to Brick Pig's house only to find… Brick Pig was very angry?
“You blew my neighbor's house down and now you come through my chimney?” complained Brick Pig. “You are being big and bad!”
“You see this was all a big misunderstanding,” I claimed.. “Lets get Pizza!“
“As long as there's no ham!” laughed Brick pig.
The Three Little Pigs
By: Brick Pig
By Kyle (8th grade)
My mom kicked us out of her house calling us. “Lazy, stupid brats.” I understand why she kicked my brothers out (they aren’t the brightest of the family.) But why me? I was a straight A student back at school. I listened to what she told me to do, and I did it! And what did my brothers do? They sat down, played games, not caring about their grades of B- or less. And when she kicked us out, my brothers’ laziness showed… Here’s how the story went.
“Get out of this house you lazy, stupid brats! Go figure out your own housing!” my mom yelled at us. I tried to convince her to let us stay. But she didn’t listen. My mom was “kind” enough to give us food for two days and a wheelbarrow each.
We reluctantly walked out the house and went our separate ways. I decided to make my house out of bricks, inspired by my mom’s house. First, I scouted around for a good place to build it. Next, I looked around for a pond, so I could make mud bricks. I trudged for hours in the blazing, hot sun looking for one.
When I finally found a pond, I collected as much mud as I could into my wheelbarrow. And I had to use my trotters! The mud got stuck, and in the searing sun, the mud crusted around my trotters. It was very uncomfortable. I walked back to my planned house plot, and nearby, I dug twenty rectangular holes, lined them with bark from a redwood tree in the nearby forest, and put the mud into the holes.
As I walked to the pond to get more mud, I felt an itchy pain at the back of my neck. I had a sunburn! I didn’t know what it looked like, but surely it couldn’t be more pink than my normal skin tone.
When I got back from the pond, the mud I left in the holes had dried. I took out the mud bricks and laid them out based on my floor plan. I decided to make my house into a long rectangle.. I put some more mud into the holes. The sky started to get dark, so I found a nearby oak tree, propped my wheel barrow next to it, and slept.
When I woke up, I got back to work, made some more bricks, and laid some more bricks. I walked over to check on my brothers. My youngest brother, Straw Pig, made his house out of straw.
“Straw Pig!” I asked my brother who was laying back, sunbathing. “Are you sure this will hold up?”
He replied, “It’ll be fine. I ain’t worried.”
I tentatively stepped away, worried that if I stepped too hard, it would fall down. Next, I went to look for my other brother, Stick Pig. When I finally found him, guess what he was doing. Relaxing! Next to him was his house, which was made with sticks. I hurriedly ran back to my house, hoping my brothers’ low IQ wasn’t contagious.
When I got back to my house, I laid the bricks and made some more. While the new ones were baking, I went into the forest near the house. I picked up some rocks just in case I found some small animals to eat. In the meantime, I scavenged some berries and plants for food. Then, I went back to my house for the night.
As I got back, I laid down the last bricks, and then my walls were done! I went inside and laid down for the night. In the morning, I gathered some wood from the forest for a door, and ceiling. I used some mud to keep the planks in place. And finally, my house was complete!
The next day, while I was eating lunch, both of my brothers dashed into my house yelling, “Lock the door! Lock it!”
I did as they demanded, but then I asked them, “Why?”
My youngest brother replied with, “TherewasaBigBadWolfheblewourhousesdown.” He took a breath, ”Sowerantoyourhouse.”
“Could you please repeat that? But slooooowly.”
“Ok. There was a Big Bad Wolf. He blew our houses down. So, we ran to your house.”
“Why should I let you stay?” I asked grumpily. “You both were lazy and got us kicked out of our old house.”
“Because if you don’t, we’ll get eaten,” Stick Pig interjected.
An hour after that interaction, I heard a big, loud knock on the door.
“Little pig, little pig, let me come in,” came a loud, gruff voice outside.
“It’s the Big Bad Wolf!” Straw Pig told me quietly.
“Not by the hair on my chinny chin chin! I will not let you in!” I yelled at the wolf outside.
“Then I’ll huff and I'll puff and I will blow your house down!” he replied angrily.
The Big Bad Wolf huffed, then he puffed, and he blew out a huge breath. His breath was like a hurricane, knocking trees down and flipping rocks. But because I built my house well, it did not surrender to the wind. Eventually the wind stopped, but the house was still standing strong.
“We should block the chimney, but we don’t have anything to block it with!” I yelled loudly, trying to bait the Big Bad Wolf down it.
“What do you mean?” My lazy brothers asked me. “We have plenty of things to block it with.”
I whispered to them, “I’m trying to get the wolf to come down the chimney. And I’m gonna put some hot water under it, so he runs away.”
“Huh?” they said, confused.
I sighed, and put a pot of hot water under the chimney. Eventually, the wolf hopped down the chimney and fell right into the pot! Then he leapt out with a jump worthy of a fairy tale and then ran off into the forest, never to be seen again.
The next day, I kicked my brothers out of the house for taking advantage of my hard work while they were being lazy. And then I kicked back and relaxed while my brothers built better, stronger houses.
The End
Little Red Riding Hood As told by Mr. Wolf
by Nicolyn (8th grade)
Hello, my name is Wolf. Or perhaps know me as “The Big Bad Wolf”. Well, today I'm here to tell you why I was unfairly nicknamed and more importantly that I did not, indeed, try to eat Little Red Riding Hood, or anyone else for that matter.
This whole thing started when I was out on my daily walk. I was strolling around my grandmother’s property, when I saw a little girl in a red cloak. This path only led to my grandmother’s house, so I was confused to see anyone around. My relations with the nearby townspeople were strained at best, so I was wary of causing any sort of confusion. However, the girl was clearly on the wrong path, so I decided to approach.
“Good morning” I said to the girl, “Where could you be going so early in the day?”
The girl replied, “I was going to my grandmother’s house to give her this food, as she has been doing poorly, Mr. Wolf. Her house is just down this way.”
Good grief. This girl was a complete ditz. She must have wandered off the path somehow. The villagers would throw a fit if I went anywhere near their precious Red, so I decided to go for the subtle route and point her back to the right path. She would have to go through the forest, but oh well. Her sense of direction couldn’t be that bad, right?
“Little girl, why don’t you pick some flowers for your grandmother?” I asked, “There is a wonderful clearing just over that way,”
“What a delightful idea!” exclaimed Red.
She managed to bumble into the forest, snagging on every branch in her way, as I sighed with relief. This girl was a nuisance, but she could put in a good word for me with the villagers, and I would never see her again. Or so I had hoped.
On my return to my grandmother’s house, I was alarmed to hear the sounds of someone entering my grandmother’s house. Great. First the girl, now a trespasser. Grandmother probably let them in because she’s blind as a bat. I should have come back sooner, but noooooo. Out of the goodness of my heart I helped a ditzy little village girl who probably got eaten or something by now. I looked through the window to assess the situation and saw the very SAME girl from the woods.
She was currently complimenting my Gran-Gran on very strange things: her ears, her eyes, her hands, her mouth, and my grandmother wasn’t having it. She jumped out of bed and started to push Red out of the house. To defuse the situation, I decided to wear a human disguise. I entered the room and quickly jumped in front of them.
“Red, why don’t you go outside and pick some flowers for your grandma?”
Red, not questioning the stranger ordering her around, or that she already gave flowers to her “grandmother”, tottered out the door. I quickly apologized to Gran-Gran, then left the house.
Red shuffled her way across the forest in the direction of her grandmother’s house after that, and I never heard from her again. When I heard the twisted version of this story, I was so confused! How did it warp me into eating people? There were so many things wrong with that story, that I needed to write my own perspective.
And there you have it. I am not a killer, just a simple wolf minding my own business.
The Ugly Duckling
By Duckling number 7: AnaRose (8th grade)
Many of you have probably heard the story of the ugly duckling, but you’ve all heard the wrong side! First, you may think that it was us ducklings that were rude and bullies. That is completely incorrect; in fact it was our mother who didn’t accept him! When he hatched, we still saw him as one of us, while mother simply thought he was an intruder and refused to acknowledge his presence. So I will be telling the story from duckling number seven’s view, AnaRose.
I was the seventh duckling that was hatched. And I had six sisters, Marissa, Nicolyn, Allison, Maeve, Penelope, and Vivian. Our mother was happy with our hatching, but all of us were curious about the bigger egg which was blue-ish gray. Mother was skeptical but said that it would hatch soon. And she was right; just the very next day he hatched. He was different from the rest of us; he was gray instead of yellow and brown like we were. But we were happy for his hatching nevertheless. It didn’t matter how he looked. Mother on the other hand immediately marked him as ugly and an outcast. The only recognition she seemed to give him was his name, Kyle.
Later on we headed out to the pond. As each one of us got into the water we waited for Kyle to get in as he was crestfallen about Mother’s reaction. When he got in he could swim well, so we did not understand why mother was like that. She turned around once, spotted Kyle and seemed to quack in annoyance. Now this was unfair; she was kind to the rest of us ducklings, but as soon as Kyle came along, she dismissed him! As time went on a system seemed to develop. My sisters and I would always stick around Kyle, who had grown quite resilient from Mother’s behavior. But today my mother must have had enough because she lashed out at Kyle!
“You ugly duckling! Don’t you know your place? You are not one of us!”
Kyle didn’t even get a word in and could only stand there as mother rebuked him. I turned towards my sisters and we all had the same thought: we must do something. So we did.
“You have been constantly ignoring Kyle!” I projected.
“Yeah! And you treat him unfairly from the rest of us!” Marissa followed.
Then Vivian spoke up, “So what if he looks different then us?”
Then Allison, Nicolyn, Maeve and Penelope followed. “Just because one is different doesn’t allow you to treat them that way!”
“You dismiss him without a thought, mother!”
“I don’t understand why you treat him in such a manner!”
“Kyle is still one of us!”
Mother was flabbergasted. All of her ducklings had suddenly sided with the ugly duckling in her eyes. But we were done with her ill treatment. Then she turned to Kyle with a look in her eyes I did not recognize, I could not hear what she said but I could only think of one thing. Mother no longer accepted him in her brood.
As we headed back to the nest that night the silence was painful. Then finally, Kyle spoke up and confirmed our fears. “Mother told me to leave, she said to run and never come back.” His voice was quiet and sorrowful, and I took in a sharp breath. Perhaps it was best. Mother would no longer torment him. However we didn't know what was out there, and he could be killed! Plus, we would no longer be able to see him. But we could try.
Later on when mother had fallen asleep we accompanied Kyle on his way out, each step was painful. Eventually we had reached another pond and Kyle had decided that he would rest here for a while. My sisters and I had already come up with a plan.
“Each day of the week one of us will come visit you, but we can only afford to go at night.” I was disappointed that we had to compromise at night time, but in the state mother was right now, it was too dangerous. The rest nodded and he seemed grateful. We would have all liked a moment more or two, but in the distance we could hear mothers quacks start to sound. And we quickly had to escape, but at least now he knew we would visit.
Mother was not happy as we got home, but with what just happened we were too sad and tired to hear her words. As the days went by, we checked up on him, and he told us scary stories. A dog came by yesterday and he thought he was going to die, but the dog passed him. He mumbled after he was done, “I’m too ugly to even be eaten.” Instantly we denied this assumption of his.
Today was cloudy and we knew there was a storm coming, not too long ago another had occurred and he had found a warm house. However, the tomcat was far too threatening and the other birds also made fun of him. He left soon after arrival.
But this storm looked worse, and he was already shaken from the last storm with no one to help him. With all of us determined to save him, we split up at the pond and looked for a suitable place to live. Marissa found the best one. She had observed a nice farmer who took good care of his animals. The house was cozy and would definitely keep him warm in the upcoming storm. That night, Marissa set off and told him the directions. We could do nothing from here.
The plan was successful. That night Kyle had been taken in by the nice farmer and was now finally in a safe place. All of our down had started growing out and we were all secretly excited to see how Kyle turned out. But no matter what he looked like it didn’t matter because it was still Kyle. Mother grew a bit more distance since the incident and we never spoke of it. She thought Kyle was long gone or even dead and we had to keep it like that. The time to leave the nest was coming closer each day anyway.
As the next year started and we departed from our nest as fully grown ducks. We still couldn’t help but wonder how Kyle was doing. Between the storms and mothers constant watch, our checkups had dwindled. So as a group we all set off to the farmers house where we found a beautiful pond to wait in.
The door opened. Then the farmer walked out with the most elegant bird we have seen. The ugly duckling had transformed into a swan. He was set down in the water and was swimming towards us powerfully. When he got to us he cheerfully spoke,
“Hey guys!” He was met with a brief silence.
“Kyle, you should look down at your reflection,” Nicolyn said. He looked down to swipe at the figure.
“What is that?” he questioned.
“That’s you Kyle, that is you.” Penelope responded. He looked once again into the water and joy broke out on his face.
“That's me,” he whispered. “That’s me.”
Little Red Riding Hood, by Nicolyn (8th grade)
As told by Mr. Wolf
Hello, my name is Wolf. Or perhaps know me as “The Big Bad Wolf”. Well, today I'm here to tell you why I was unfairly nicknamed and more importantly that I did not, indeed, try to eat Little Red Riding Hood, or anyone else for that matter.
This whole thing started when I was out on my daily walk. I was strolling around my grandmother’s property, when I saw a little girl in a red cloak. This path only led to my grandmother’s house, so I was confused to see anyone around. My relations with the nearby townspeople were strained at best, so I was wary of causing any sort of confusion. However, the girl was clearly on the wrong path, so I decided to approach.
“Good morning” I said to the girl, “Where could you be going so early in the day?”
The girl replied, “I was going to my grandmother’s house to give her this food, as she has been doing poorly, Mr. Wolf. Her house is just down this way.”
Good grief. This girl was a complete ditz. She must have wandered off the path somehow. The villagers would throw a fit if I went anywhere near their precious Red, so I decided to go for the subtle route and point her back to the right path. She would have to go through the forest, but oh well. Her sense of direction couldn’t be that bad, right?
“Little girl, why don’t you pick some flowers for your grandmother?” I asked, “There is a wonderful clearing just over that way,”
“What a delightful idea!” exclaimed Red.
She managed to bumble into the forest, snagging on every branch in her way, as I sighed with relief. This girl was a nuisance, but she could put in a good word for me with the villagers, and I would never see her again. Or so I had hoped.
On my return to my grandmother’s house, I was alarmed to hear the sounds of someone entering my grandmother’s house. Great. First the girl, now a trespasser. Grandmother probably let them in because she’s blind as a bat. I should have come back sooner, but noooooo. Out of the goodness of my heart I helped a ditzy little village girl who probably got eaten or something by now. I looked through the window to assess the situation and saw the very SAME girl from the woods.
She was currently complimenting my Gran-Gran on very strange things: her ears, her eyes, her hands, her mouth, and my grandmother wasn’t having it. She jumped out of bed and started to push Red out of the house. To defuse the situation, I decided to wear a human disguise. I entered the room and quickly jumped in front of them.
“Red, why don’t you go outside and pick some flowers for your grandma?”
Red, not questioning the stranger ordering her around, or that she already gave flowers to her “grandmother”, tottered out the door. I quickly apologized to Gran-Gran, then left the house.
Red shuffled her way across the forest in the direction of her grandmother’s house after that, and I never heard from her again. When I heard the twisted version of this story, I was so confused! How did it warp me into eating people? There were so many things wrong with that story, that I needed to write my own perspective.
And there you have it. I am not a killer, just a simple wolf minding my own business.
