Henny-Penny
Author: Joseph Jacobs
Publisher: D. Nutt, London
Copyright: 1894
Pages: 1-2 (for each tale)
Reading Level: 3
Genre: Fairy Tales
Rating: **
Other stories read: The Story of the Three Little Pigs, Jack and the Beanstalk, and The Golden Arm

Summary:
Henny-penny was picking corn one day when something falls and hits her on the head. Her reaction naturally of course is that the sky is falling. So she sets off to tell the king the news. Along the way she meets several people. And with each one she meets they ask if they can come along to tell the King the sky of falling, and to each the reply is “certainly”. The first she meets is Cocky-locky, then Ducky-daddles, Goosey-poosey and Turkey-lurkey. And when they have almost made it to the Kings along comes Foxy-woxy. Foxy-woxy of course asks the group where they are going and if he as well can come along. The reply once more is the same as before, that the sky is falling and certainly he can come along. But, Foxy-woxy is not like the rest, he tells the group they are going the wrong way, and he tricks them all into coming back into his cave. He of course goes first and the rest follow starting with Turkey-lurkey and on down the line. As they each enter his cave he bites off their head and thrown their bodies off to the side. When he finally gets too Cocky-locky though, the first bite does not kill him and he calls out to Henny-penny. So Henny-penny runs home and never tells the King the sky is falling.

Who would benefit from reading this?
I don’t know that anyone would necessarily benefit from reading these tales, but kids of most ages would enjoy them. They can be a bit gruesome but there is far worse on tv today then animals getting their heads bit off.

Potential problems/conflicts:
The potential problems I see are that it can be rather gruesome for young children especially. These are not the happy ending fairy tales that Disney portrays, so some parents might find that offensive.

My reaction:
To be quite honest, the Jacob’s version of the fairy tales is not my favorite, though it is quite similar to most of the tales that I grew up on as a kid. For example, Jack and the Beanstalk was the same story I remember as a child. I was quite surprised how many of these stories I hadn’t heard, and the ones I had, the characters were generally very different from the tales I remember. For example, when I was a kid, it was not Henny-penny that cried the sky was falling it was a Hen.