Super Red Riding Hood

Reviewed by: Dorothy Hall-Riddle - N/A, Cumberland, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: May 12, 2015

Review

Ruby's favorite color is red; her boots are red, her lunch box is red, and the cloak her granny made her is red. When she puts the cloak on she becomes Super Red Riding Hood, a great super hero. When her mother encourages her to go into the woods to pick raspberries, Ruby reminds herself to be brave, like a super hero. It is here that she encounters the wolf, whose stomach is growling so much Ruby thinks he wants to eat her but it's really the raspberries he's after. The illustrations, rendered in Photoshop, superbly capture the wide variety of emotions in the story from Ruby's zest for life and her confidence as a super hero, her fear of the mysterious sound, the wolf's extreme lust for the raspberries, and the joy the two share after realizing they both have a common love of the juicy fruit. This would be a good book to start conversations about misconceptions, confidence, alternate versions of classic tales, and sharing. Having the background knowledge of the relationship between the wolf and Little Red Riding Hood makes the story work, even though there's no mention of going to Grand Ma's. Readers could take this or other tales and create variations as a writing exercise.

Overall Book Score: very good