Aaron J. Brenner
Bettelheim, Bruno.
The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales
. New York: Vintage Books, 1976. Offers a psychoanalytic approach to the interpretation of fairy tales as well as their usefulness in educating children. Some academics respect his research, others seem to find it sloppy and and perhaps partially stolen. Still, probably worth skimming through for ideas about specific stories you want to present in class.
Calvino, Italo.
“The False Grandmother.”
Italian Folktales
. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1992. If you loved
Invisible Cities
. . . this book contains an Italian version of the story that maintains the basic plot but offers some interestingly divergent elements. A video with illustrations and John Turturro narrating the story is also available on-line.
Carruthers, Amelia.
Little Red Riding Hood and Other Girls Who Got Lost in the Woods: Origins of Fairy Tales from Around the World
. Warwickshire: Read Publishing Ltd., 2015. Could be the textbook for this unit as it offers a very good overview of the history and evolution of seven variations on the Red Riding Hood tale.
Carter, Angela. “The Company of Wolves.”
The Bloody Chamber
. London: Gollancz, 1979. Gothic fantasy-horror story with content that is perhaps inappropriate to be offering students in high school (though nothing compared to what they are looking up on-line on their own – so it’s your call) from a book that won the famous Cheltenham Festival Literary Prize in 1979 and was much praised by critics like Jack Zipes and Marina Warner. Also made into a film.
Clarke, Stephanie. “Close reading drama: ‘Little Red Riding Hood.’”
LearnZillion
, 2017. https://learnzillion.com/resources/72981-close-reading-drama-little-red-riding-hood (accessed May 27, 2017). If you have really low level kids, this site has some short, video-based lessons that will help them gain the skills they need to deconstruct a text.
Duffy, Carol Ann. “The Little Red Cap.”
The World’s Wife
. New York: Picador, 1999.
A feminist poem that depicts the protagonist as an empowered young woman who pursues the wolf – resulting in a relationship between the two. Perhaps not suitable for all classes.
Dundes, Alan, ed.
Little Red Riding Hood: A Casebook
. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989. A very good collection of scholarly articles analyzing the Perrault and Grimm versions of the story. Most of these might be too difficult for struggling readers, but if you want to offer your students a taste of college . . . and a better understanding of why so many college students become heavy drinkers . . . then the essays in this book will do the trick.
Grambo, Rebecca L.
Wolf: Legend, Enemy, Icon
. Buffalo, New York: Firefly Books, 2009. A good history of our evolving perceptions about and attitudes toward wolves. Excellent if you want your students to understand that fairy tales present a very narrow view of the cultural ideologies representing wolves, and are in some part responsible (along with Christian dogma and the financial interests of livestock owners) for the negative iconography associated with these animals.
Heiner, Heidi Anne.
SurLaLune Fairy Tales
, last updated December 2, 2016. http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/index.html (accessed May 27, 2017). This was one of my favorite sites for finding fairy tale information when I first began teaching and I taught a class on myth and folklore. It is still an easy-to-navigate site that offers versions of many stories and enough information (including links to other sites) to get your students started with their analyses.
Hillard, Molly Clark. “Dickens’ Little Red Riding Hood and Other Waterside Characters.”
Studies in English Literature
, Volume 49 (Autumn 2009): 945-973. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2009. If you are interested in connecting a study of Dickens to the fairy tale, then you may want to track down this article.
Salda, Michael, ed.
The Little Red Riding Hood Project
. Version 1.1, October 2005. De Grummond Children’s Literature Research Collection, University of Southern Missippi. http://www.usm.edu/media/english/fairytales/lrrh/lrrhhome.htm (accessed May 28, 2017). A great resource for text and images related to adaptations of the Little Red Riding Hood story.
Mallet, Carl-Heinz. “‘Little Red Riding Hood’: Rated R.”
Sciences
(May 1, 1984): 50-55. http://lci-mt.iii.com:61080/ebsco-e-b/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=691881ea-9c47-4317-9aa9-5f983951dc49%40sessionmgr103&vid=1&hid=113 (accessed May 26, 2017). A psychoanalytic (mostly Freudian) review of (primarily) the Grimm version of the tale. Worth a read but perhaps not suitable for all high school audiences.
Morgan, Jeanne.
Perrault’s Morals for Moderns
. New York: Peter Land Publishing, Inc., 1985. I’d recommend a strong command of French if you want to read this book (which I do not have), but from what I understood . . . it’s about Perrault and fairy tales.
Orenstein, Catherine.
Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale
. New York: Basic Books, 2003. A thorough study of the evolution and influences on the various incarnations of “Little Red Riding Hood” and fairy tales in general. Not all parts may be suitable for all high school audiences, but it is a fascinating study of the way fairy tales inspire, educate, and enculturate us according to the intentions of the people adapting them.
Ragan, Kathleen.
Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters: Heroines in Folktales from Around the World.
New York: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc., 1998. Good for versions of fairy tales that offer strong and smart female protagonists.
The Rescue of Little Red Riding Hood: A Juvenile Operetta in Five Acts
(Nashville: C. R. and H. H. Hatch, 1883). https://books.google.com/books?id=ONrj7H3oa5QC&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q&f=false (accessed May 27, 2017). There’s just some strange stuff out there . . . but great if you are into musical theater.
Swyt, Wendy. “‘Wolfings’: Angela Carter’s Becoming-Narrative.”
Studies in Short Fiction
(1996): 315-323. (Newberry, S.C.: Newberry College Press, June 1, 1996). http://lci-mt.iii.com:61080/ebsco-e-a/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=df5979fe-52af-4be3-8ba8-9d9ac67b1c3d%40sessionmgr4006&vid=1&hid=4211 (accessed May 25, 2017). An academic essay responding to another academic essay, both critical interpretations of Angela Carter’s adaptation of the Red Riding Hood tale entitled “The Company of Wolves.” You may want to read this and the other essay, Robert Clark’s “Angela Carter’s Desire Machine,” if you are planning on having your students read (or watch the film made from) Angela Carter’s story, but I wouldn’t make your kids read either unless you want them to understand the abstruse and meretricious arguments academics make to earn their keep.
Szucs, Krisztina. “Violence and Abuse in Little Red Riding Hood.” krisztinaszucs.com. http://krisztinaszucs.com/my-product/little-red-riding-hood/
(accessed May 24, 2017). An excellent, downloadable graphic comparing and contrasting five different versions of the Little Red Riding Hood tale translated and/or edited by D. L. Ashliman.
Tehrani, Jamshid J. “The Phylogeny of Little Red Riding Hood.”
PLOS
, November 13, 2013. http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0078871 (accessed May 26, 2017). This is the original paper on which the National Geographic article about the scientific methods used to uncover the origins of fairy tales was based. Read this if you’re having trouble sleeping at night.
Thackeray, Miss [Anne Thackeray Ritchie].
Little Red Riding Hood
(Boston: Loring, 1867). https://books.google.com/books?id=qQFFAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false (accessed May 26, 2017). A Victorian era retelling of the tale, for those obsessed and possessed with reading every possible adaptation they can find.
Warner, Marina.
Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale
. Oxford University Press, 2016. Like Zipes, a well-respected expert on fairy tales, their origins, and their meanings. A good read for insight into a variety of popular fairy tales.
Zipes, Jack.
The Enchanted Screen: The Unknown History of Fairy-Tale Films
. New York: Routledge, 2011. If it’s getting toward the end of the year and all you want to do is show movies, then a few references to this book will make it look like there is actually a strong pedagogical basis for your activities.
Zipes, Jack.
The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood: Versions of the Tale in Sociocultural Context
. South Hadley, Massachusetts: Bergin and Garvey Publishers, 1983. A must read for this unit . . . unless you don’t want to, and then it’s not. But it is an excellent resource for social and historical context to many different versions of “Little Red Riding Hood,” so reading it will make you look a heck of a lot smarter to the kids.