Jennifer Tarr

Writing picture books for kids and their grown ups.

Category: Kittens

Toddler Teaches…LITTLE RED HEN
Because they are awesome, my parents held onto my favorite childhood books. Lyn Calder and Jeffrey Severn’s Little Red Hen was high on that list. I loved the Hen’s absolutely giant loaf of bread, as well as her (suddenly smaller) slice of toast.

Seriously, how much bread did the Little Red Hen eat between the prior page and this one? And why is it no longer the size of her torso?

Over the summer, my parents pulled out a number of my childhood favorites to read to S. Little Red Hen was an immediate winner. It’s got all the elements needed for toddler success: animals; bright, colorful illustrations; and short, punchy refrains. Not to mention carbohydrates.

Breaking Down Little Red Hen

Little Red Hen follows a predictable pattern, which got S actively interacting with the story as early as 19-20 months:
- First, the Hen asks “Who will help me [do whatever thing she needs help with to keep making the bread]?”
- Each time, the other animals respond in the same Rule of 3 refrain: “‘Not I,’ said Duck. ‘Not I,’ said Cat. ‘Not I,’ said Dog.”
- Hen responds in a predictable pattern that mirrors her initial ask, reinforcing the language that was already used: “Then I will [do whatever Hen’s initial request was] myself.”
- The sequence for each of Hen’s requests concludes with: “And she did.”
S loved the repetitions, and loved chiming in “did” at the conclusion of each section.

The refrains and parallel language are predictable, vocabulary building, and fun. They also use simple, declarative sentences that make it easier for young readers to understand what is happening and participate in the action.

The last few pages invert the animals’ refusals to help, continuing in a Rule of 3 pattern that ties the ending of the book to everything that came before in a satisfying “of course!” conclusion.

Who will help Hen eat the (absolutely ginormous) bread? “I will!” said Duck, Cat, and Dog. But in a continuation of the previously established pattern, Hen responds that she will eat the bread herself. And in a continuation of the refrain S loves so much, the story ends with a simple, “And she did.”

Analyzing the construction of the book, I can see why I loved Little Red Hen as a kid and why S loves it now. (Though if we’re being honest, I still really like the bread pictures, so maybe it’s more about the carbs than the exceptional construction of the story…)

Trying a Reimagining of the Story

Given S’s love of Little Red Hen, I thought it would be interesting to see S’s reaction to a version of the story geared for slightly older readers.

Thanks to Jasmine Sears for the eARC!

Jasmine Sears‘s and Amelia Mangham‘s upcoming picture book The Little Red Hen Learns How to Ask for Help cleverly reimagines the story in a light more favorable to the Hen’s unhelpful friends. In their retelling, Hen has asked — nay, demanded — each of her friends help her with a task they are unsuited to do. Dog is told to cut the wheat, Cat is told to fetch the water, and so on. It is only after Hen realizes she should be asking nicely and asking her friends for help with things they know how to do (and are not afraid of doing) that they all pitch in and bake the bread together.

S was absolutely transfixed by the illustrations in this version — they’re beautiful, bright, and almost glow from within. We made it to the end of the first half of the story (where Hen eats all the bread herself), which is the part S already knew. That was 367 words, which is on the long side for S’s attention span but doable with this many illustrations (particularly when they are brightly colored and of animals) and predictable, parallel language. The fact that S already knew the basics of the story to that point probably also helped.

S’s interest in the retelling highlights the value of reimagining stories that are familiar to young readers — the more familiar the story, the easier it is for a young reader to understand parts of the retelling, even if generally aimed at an older age group. It’s also another mark in the plus column for animals, parallel language, and brightly colored illustrations (a.k.a. toddler gold).

Little Red Hen By the Numbers:

Pages: 23

Word Count: 297

Words Per Illustration: 24.75

Words Per Sentence: 7.24

The Little Red Hen Learns to Ask for Help By the Numbers:

Pages: 36 pages of what I would consider the “main” book.

Word Count: 785

Words Per Illustration: 13.77

Words Per Sentence: 10.61
January 26, 2026
Toddler Teaches…HOW TO DRAW A HAPPY CAT
I first came across How to Draw a Happy Cat when our local children’s librarian suggested it for my own writing research. (Side note: Librarians are awesome. Ideas to support your local library here.)

As a more advanced picture book (SLJ suggests it for grades K-2), I did not expect it to immediately enter S’s favorite book rotation. I should have. Here’s why:
1. It combines multiple kid-favorite topics.
2. The language is declarative and snappy.
3. The book invites the reader to participate in the action.
4. The illustrations are active and colorful.
As pretty much all my previous posts have established, S’s current favorite book subjects are animals and transportation. If your book has animals and/or transportation vehicles, S will probably at least give it a spin. If your book combines animals and transportation vehicles, you have dramatically upped your odds that S will want to read your book, and likely more than once. (Exhibit A: Animals Go Vroom!, an all-time S favorite.)

How to Draw a Happy Cat does one better, and introduces not only animals and airplanes, but also one of S’s favorite foods: pizza.

This may be one of S’s favorite images in any picture book we’ve read. It’s got a cat eating pizza being flung from a catapult, all while hanging onto an airplane. Pretty much toddler heaven.

It’s like Ethan Berlin was handed a list of S’s interests and told to craft a story around them. Even without a great story, S would be predisposed to flip through the story over and over again, just to look at pictures of cats, airplanes, pizza, and cats eating pizza on airplanes.

But the story works. It’s a hysterical, modern, interactive version of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. And while the story is complex, the way it’s written and illustrated extends the age range downward.

The story starts by inviting the reader to participate in the action — drawing our main character.

Learning how to draw a happy cat may be fun and easy, but no one said anything about keeping that cat happy…

It goes on from there in the same vein – each time we think the cat is finally happy, something happens, and we have to draw/solve her next problem.

The sentences are often short and limited to one or two per page, conveying complicated problems and emotions with clean, simple language that is easy for S to understand. (How is the cat going to get the pizza? We have to turn the page to find out!)

The cadence is great for listening, and the interactive language choices also keep S engaged – S is getting all the credit for helping out our new friend Cat. (“Great! She’s so happy! Good job!”)

The sentences are also frequently accompanied by an illustration per idea. This decision is genius from a craft perspective, because it gives the reader the impression that they are impacting the story by “drawing” new things as the narrator directs them to do so.

It also has a possibly-unintended benefit from a toddler attention-span perspective. As with Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn, the sentence-per-illustration model of picture book creation is crucial to keeping S’s attention in longer books because each sentence gives S a new thing to look at (and the new illustration reinforces S’s ability to understand what the text is saying).

So while Ethan Berlin and Jimbo Matison ~~probably~~ almost certainly didn’t set out to create this book for an under two year old, a few simple choices turned this book into an unexpected repeat pick.

How to Draw a Happy Cat By the Numbers:

Pages: 40

Word Count: 311

Words Per Illustration: 7.78

Words Per Sentence: 5.65
December 2, 2025
Toddler Teaches…ITTY-BITTY KITTY-CORN
Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham’s Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn is — pardon the pun — a unicorn: a 40-page, 413-word picture book that my toddler will not only sit through cover-to-cover but request again and again. That’s because it ticks off every box for S’s favorite books:
1. A cute, cuddly main character
2. A subject S loves (here, animals)
3. Onomatopoeia
4. Active, colorful illustrations
5. Active, short, punchy sentences
6. Repetition and word choices that invite interaction from the listener
I’ll take them in turn, though many of these points can easily be combined differently under multiple topic headers. (In short, the reasons this is S’s co-favorite book are self-reinforcing.)

1. A cute, cuddly main character

This one’s pretty self-explanatory. Just look at Kitty:

She’s adorable. And she prances and preens and trots and gambols all the way through the book:

S LOVES these end pages, which open the book showing Kitty’s desire to be a unicorn, and the creation of her iconic horn.

Even when (spoiler alert) Kitty gets sad, she remains utterly adorable. You just want to give her a big hug. S loves to look at all the pictures of Kitty throughout the book, helping to hold S’s attention through the text.

2. Animals

This one’s also pretty self-explanatory. S loves animals, and this is a book with animal characters. I will note that the type of animals in the book was not a selling point; just the mere fact of animal characters was what did it. Prior to reading this book, S was not into kitties, unicorns, geckos, or parakeets, but S left the book a fan of kitties, unicorns, and kitty-corns.

3. Onomatopoeia

Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn uses well-placed, fun onomatopoeia. Kitty “neighs” (a favorite animal sound that immediately endeared the book to S). Her tail goes “poof.” The unicorn goes “clop clop.”

The onomatopoeia is not over the top, but sprinkled in only where it makes sense to move the story along. And S loves to chime in with it.

4. Active, Colorful Illustrations

You can get a sense of this from some of the pictures above, but Kitty is constantly moving. Her expressions and actions change across and down the page.

The fact that the illustrations frequently feature Kitty doing multiple different things on a given page help hold S’s attention — there are lots of varied illustrations that S can look at while I read the corresponding sentences, which makes it much easier to get through longer text blocks (and presumably make it easier for S to understand what the text is conveying when it uses new words).

5. Active, Short, Punchy Sentences

Itty-Bitty Kitty Corn may be on the absolute high end of word count for books S and I read together, but it does not feel long in the slightest. Shannon Hale’s text is phenomenally tight. Sentences are short, punchy, and active (and often tied to individualized illustrations per sentence). There are frequently no more than 2-3 sentences on a page. Those sentences are often no more than 5 words, making them easier for a young reader to follow (and adding to the rhythm of the story). Dramatic pauses are built into the writing, and also to the text layout:

6. Repetition and Interactive Sentences

Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn makes great use of repetition and near repetition, as well as interactive sentences that let S anticipate and join in with me. S especially loves the onomatopoeia and saying “up up up” along with me.

***

TL;DR – this book is adorable, and does so many things right for appealing to multiple age groups. I can easily see it remaining a favorite for a long time.

Some quick stats on Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn:

Page count: 40 pages of what I would consider the “main” book

Word count: 413

Average word count per illustration: 10.86 (or 10.33 if you count standalone pages of text with pretty font as their own illustration)

Average sentence length: 5.9 words per sentence (or 6.16 if you include semicolons and sentences that were broken over multiple pages and illustrations as single sentences)
October 15, 2025

English