Paired Texts > Little Red Riding Hood

by The Brothers Grimm 1812

We've identified these texts as great options for text pairings based on similar themes, literary devices, topic, or writing style. Supplement your lesson with one or more of these options and challenge students to compare and contrast the texts. To assign a paired text, click on the text to go to its page and click the "Assign Text" button there.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf
The Boy Who Cried Wolf
Aesop

The classic fable of a sheep herder boy who lies and pays the price.

Pair “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” with “Little Red Riding Hood” and ask students to discuss the authors’ intentions. What did they hope to achieve by writing these short stories?

5th Grade Fable 710L
The Fisherman and His Wife
The Fisherman and His Wife
The Brothers Grimm

Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859), also known as the Brothers Grimm, were German academics and authors who specialized in the collection and publication of folklore. In this story, a fisherman catches a magical fish who grants wishes—perhaps too many.

Pair these two texts by the Brothers Grimm and have students compare the style, theme, and use of literary devices.

6th Grade Folktale 920L
The Three Little Pigs
The Three Little Pigs
Joseph Jacobs

In this classic fable, three pigs each attempt to build houses that will protect them from the wicked schemes of a hungry wolf.

Pair “The Three Little Pigs” with “Little Red Riding Hood” and ask students to compare the themes and characters of the two fables. How are the wolves similar in each story? How are they different? Who is more clever – the third pig or little red riding hood – and why? What do these fables teach children?

5th Grade Fable 810L
Rumpelstiltskin
Rumpelstiltskin
The Brothers Grimm

In "Rumpelstiltskin," a classic folktale by the Brothers Grimm, a young woman asks for a mysterious creature's help when she must spin straw into gold.

Pair these two folktales by the Brothers Grimm and ask students to compare them in terms of style, themes, and tone. Who were the intended audiences of these two texts? What messages do you think the Brothers Grimm were trying to send? What do these messages reveal about the problems society may have been struggling with at the time?

5th Grade Folktale 840L
A Wolf and Little Daughter
A Wolf and Little Daughter
Virginia Hamilton

In "A Wolf and Little Daughter," a young girl distracts a wolf with her song in this Black American folktale.

Pair “Little Red Riding Hood” with “A Wolf and Little Daughter” and have students compare the two folktales. How are the wolves in both stories similar and different? How do the two young girls in “Little Red Riding Hood” and “A Wolf and Little Daughter” escape from the wolves? Is the theme of both stories more similar or different? Why?

4th Grade Folktale 580L