So, She Wandered off the Path

Once upon a time, there was a little girl that everyone called Little Red. She was incredibly sweet, but had a tendency to wander off without permission. Her mother asked her to take a basket of sweets to her grandmother who lived deep in the woods. Little Red excitedly agreed, but her mother warned her to stay on the path and to not wander off as a wolf had been seen in the forest. Little Red agreed and hurried off on her journey.

She skipped merrily along the path when the wolf saw her from the trees. “That young morsel looks delicious!” he said, but noticed someone else coming on the path, so he hid in the shadows.

A friend of her mother's stopped her along the road, “Little Red! Why are you wandering in the wood today? I heard there’s a beast that's loose in the forest."

Little Red showed her the basket filled with sweets, “I’m going to see my grandmother. She’s not feeling well… so I’m going to her home down by the river where the trees are less dense. I am being very careful.”

“Be safe!” The friend warned, “Don’t leave the path. I know you can get distracted.”

Little Red smiled and nodded, agreeing to stay safe, and then she skipped back down the path. The wolf, having watched the exchange, came up with a wicked idea, “Instead of only taking the little girl, I will go to her grandmother’s home and eat her up, and then wait for the girl and eat her up as well.” He hurried through the woods towards the home Little Red had described before.

While Little Red was moving along, she found a small field of flowers and decided to wander off the path to pick them.

When I was little, I struggled to read and didn’t like people knowing how hard it was for me. The problem, too, was that I loved stories, having developed a passion for writing and telling stories from a young age, but I couldn't truly read new books on my own. Knowing this, my mom brought me a special book one day… it was the complete collection of Brother’s Grimm Fairy Tales, and I loved it. I’d make her read those stories to me over and over again, my favorite being Little Red Cap.

Nearly 22 years later, and I still love the story. I’ve been a reading teacher for the last four years, specifically helping students who had similar issues in reading to what I’d endured until the 7th grade. That was the year I’d finally forced myself to practice reading daily until something finally clicked in me, allowing me to read books in 3 days that used to take me months. Now, I use my experience to help others realize their own potential, to let them know that their journey of reading is amazing… and let them see that anything can happen when you fall into a story you love.

One of my favorite parts about my job was doing Read Aloud with students, adding silly voices, acting out particularly ridiculous scenes, and letting the kids join in as a chorus for certain parts of the story. Unsurprisingly, one of my favorite books to read was Little Red Ridinghood. When you take the time to add voices, when you show kids that reading is fun, it opens up a whole new level of enjoyment for them in regard to books… and seeing the kids fall in love with one of my favorite stories always brought me such joy.

Last year I finished my Master of Science degree, and within the program we had to do a one-man production of a classic fairy tale. Three guesses which story I chose. Yep, you were right… it was Little Red Cap. Others groaned at the assignment, but I felt joyous as I discovered how to mix audio for the first time, while acting out my old favorite tale. I acted out every single voice, trying to bring the story to life the same way I do for my students. When the project was over, several people commented on how delightful it was, how I brought the characters to life, and how I took a story that really was fairly dark and made it humorous through my voices.

I feel that how we portray a story to children is incredibly important… and how we offer them stories can alter their perception greatly. If someone doesn’t like the book they are sharing with a child, that beautiful young mind will pick up on it immediately, and they won’t like it either. If you think a story is scary, and you read it in that manner, they will think it’s scary too. But what if you take a story formerly scary, and make it humorous? You could help someone overcome a fear of the dark or of the monsters under their bed. A book has that power, but the reader holds the power as well.

You, as the reader for a child, have the ability to show a child the magic of a book… so choose your story carefully. You may just change their life forever.