Then Little Red Riding Hood said, ‘But Grandma, What a lovely great big furry coat you have on.’
‘That’s wrong!’ cried Wolf. ‘Have you forgot To tell me what BIG TEETH I’ve got? Ah well, no matter what you say I’m going to eat you anyway.’
The small girl smiles. One eyelid flickers. She whips a pistol from her knickers. She aims it at the creature’s head And bang bang bang, she shoots him dead.
A few weeks later, in the wood, I came across Miss Riding Hood. But what a change! No cloak of red, No silly hood upon her head. She said, ‘Hello and do please note My lovely furry wolfskin coat.’
EXPLORE
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Pick out the differences between this poem and the original fairy tale using a Venn diagram.
Rhyme is very important in this poem. Re-read the poem silently, paying careful attention to the rhyme. Write out a list of all the words that rhyme, for example: Line 1 = feel; Line 2 = meal.
Rhythm is also very important. Count the syllables in each line to work out the rhyming scheme, for example: Line 1 = 8 syllables, Line 2 = 8 syllables, etc. Pick out any parts that are different to the rest of the poem. To remind yourself of rhyming schemes, go to page 123 in the Journeys collection.
You can listen to different recordings of this poem on YouTube, such as one by the British actors, Timothy West and Prunella Scales. There are also versions made by students if you search for them. There is a cartoon version too: look up ‘Little Red Riding Hood as told by Roald Dahl’ by Andrew A. Wilson.
