A retelling is when someone tells a story again in their own words, often making changes to fit a new purpose or audience. When you read a book and then explain what happened to a friend, you're giving a retelling. When a movie adapts a classic fairy tale but sets it in modern times, that's a retelling too.

Retellings can be simple or creative. A simple retelling might just summarize the main events: “In The Three Little Pigs, three pigs build houses, a wolf tries to blow them down, and the brick house saves the day.” A creative retelling might change the perspective, setting, or even the ending. The book The True Story of the Three Little Pigs is a famous retelling told from the wolf's point of view, claiming he was just trying to borrow sugar and had a bad cold.

Teachers often ask students to write retellings to check if they understood a story. Authors create retellings to explore old stories in fresh ways. Broadway's West Side Story is a retelling of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet set in 1950s New York. These retellings keep beloved stories alive by showing how their themes matter across different times and places.

The key to a good retelling is capturing what made the original story work while adding something new or making it clearer for your audience.