Review by Booklist Review
First published in the U.S. in 1968, this tall, striking edition of Little Red Riding Hood is now available again. The story has been retold here and shortened a bit, but the essentials are still in place. Red Riding Hood carries cake and some cordial to her ailing grandmother. The wily wolf swallows Grandmother and Red Riding Hood whole. After a passing hunter saves them by cutting open the sleeping beast, the wolf awakens, finds his belly filled with stones, and dies. Though the colorful illustrations are the same size, the book's format and typeface are a bit larger now. The expressive, naive artwork looks brighter and more dramatic than ever on the book's heavy, white pages. This picture book offers a vibrant, traditional (in the best sense) version of a classic folktale.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2009 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The story of Little Red Riding Hood unfolds in an accordion-style, postcard-size book with paper-cut scenes that make striking use of contrasting black, white, and red. The format lets readers open the book so that the story reads as a long narrative chain, or to simply flip the pages, with trees and buildings from earlier and later pages peeking through the die-cuts, creating the effect of a dense, deep forest. The extra-small font may challenge some young and adult readers alike, but the visually arresting and sometimes frightening compositions-the wolf is shown shoving Little Red's grandmother into his gaping mouth, full of blood-red teeth-leave a strong impression. Ages 5-10. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
An accordion-folded edition of the classic cautionary story, with deceptively simple cut-out illustrations on card stock that can be viewed in color or, reversed, as silhouettes. The textstrictly an afterthought, printed in tiny type and so ill-fitting that the final passages spill out onto the rear coveris Margaret Hunt's 19th-century translation with Little Red-Cap's name altered despite the fact that a cap is what she's wearing in the pictures. Children will know how the story goes anyway, and they will have no trouble following along as the doll-like, apple-cheeked child meets a properly frightening black wolf with bright red teeth and is later devoured along with her grandmother. Because the pages of die-cut art are dead black on one side and white with red and black highlights on the other, not only are several layers visible at once, but the overlaps create ominous shadows and depths behind the figures. Moreover, though Sourdais leaves out explicit views of the wolf being cut open and, later, flensed by the "huntsman," she does add a provocative note to the climactic bedside scene by stripping Little Red to her red-and-black polka-dot underclothes. Bland at first glance, appropriately eerie and disquieting on closer examination. (Novelty picture book/folk tale. 7-9) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
