Della Rowland

Another quick and cute read for us, Little Read Riding Hood/The Wolf's Tale is both the traditional tale, told in the most basic and standard way AND it's also something totally different. Once you've read the original, from "Reds" perspective, you flip the book over and meet William the Wolf, hearing from his own lips (do wolves have lips??) how it REALLY went down! The original tale, is predictable and won't be any big shakes for readers/listeners familiar with the tale already, nor does the illustration style really enhance the story. It's heavy on the text and light on pictures (in my opinion) and they are done in a style that doesn't really appeal to me, Red Riding Hood looks like a plastic baby doll come to life, not the style I would have chosen...but that's a minor aesthetic that's easily overlooked for the larger pay off of The Wolf's tale.

Once you flip the book over to the wolf's side, you can image a kind of shady wolf, pssssssst....pssssssssst...calling you over and slyly telling you the real deal. He doesn't eat people...never has. It's all about chicken for him and as we join him on this romping adventure where Red catches him stealing roasted chicken from her basket of goodies and takes it upon herself to reform him in his chicken stealing and eating days...feeding him pea soup, oatmeal, a broccoli omelet, and rice crackers and peanut butter...what respectable wolf eats rice crackers and peanut butter? The ending is cute and not entirely predictable...well worth a read. The Wolf's Tale also has the same illustration style, which again, wasn't all that appealing to me, but does effectively give it a soft, old time feeling.

Overall I give it 4 stars for the pure enjoyment of the Wolf's side of the story. This is a relatively clean and sanitized version, though in Red's version, the wolf DOES eat Red and Granny and the Woodsman DOES cut them out of his stomach and the DO fill it up with sharp rocks, despite this, the book has a very clean, non-dark atmosphere to it.… (mais)