The Little Red Pen

The Little Red Pen

Janet Stevens & Susan Stevens Crummel

Help!  A mountain of papers need to be graded!  Only Little Red Pen is willing to tackle the enormous undertaking.  The rest of the school supplies hide in the desk.  Then the unthinkable happens; Little Red Pen falls into the Pit of No Return (the trash can).  Can her fellow-supplies pull together in order to save her?  

Last May, I read this story to a variety of elementary students.  Older kids realized right away that The Little Red Pen is very loosely based on the classic folk tale The Little Red Hen.  Like the animals in the barnyard, the school supplies refuse to respond to Little Red Pen's pleas for help by answering "not I".   All of the supplies have excuses.  In The Little Red Pen, Sisters Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel creatively teach students that working together can be productive and fun.  Check out The Little Red Pen book trailer that I found on YouTube: