Little Red Riding Hood by Alison Jay (Children's, Picture book, 10/10E)

June 2013, Templar, 32 pages, Hardback, Review copy

Themes: classic fairy tale, highly detailed illustrations, warm & inviting illustrations, interactive read, family ties, helping others, the wicked being punished

Summary from Templar

In this retelling of the ever-popular tale, Little Red Riding Hood goes to visit her grandmother and finds a rather larger, scarier wolf in her bed! After a frightening moment, the wolf is captured by a woodsman and granny is let out of the wardrobe. Young readers can also see the story of Hansel and Gretel being played out solely in pictures in the background, and spot motifs of other fairy tales.

Nayuleska's thoughts

Classic fairy tales such as this one never grow old. I love Little Red Riding Hood, but I hate the wolf as

the illustrations are usually really scary. I wanted to read this version because the wolf looked relatively tame. I still trembled in anticipation at the scene in RRH's granny's cottage, but thankfully I didn't want to run screaming from the book - definitely a plus!

The style of the illustrations is exquisite  - look, it's a little similar to some cute Japanese sticky notes I've got my eye on. 

Cute huh?

That was partly why I wanted to review it - RRH is so sweet! It's clever how the reader is asked to keep an eye out for other characters, who appeared throughout the book. By the end Hansel and Gretel were chasing the witch out of the gingerbread cottage and she...no, I won't say what happened to the witch. It was parts like seeing boots at the bottom of a tree and a cat sitting on the branches (Puss in Boots story), red dancing slippers hanging on RRH's granny's wall (The Red Slippers, not sure of the title but it's the one with magical shoes that make the girl dance on and on), Rapunzel in her tower seen through RRH's granny's bedroom window and many more cool characters.

Find out more on Alison's lovely purple website. 

Suggested read

For more fairy tale fun which isn't scary check out The Fairytale Hairdresser Or How Rapunzel Got Her Prince by Abie Longstaff & Lauren Beard