While this collection ignores some of the darker undertones of the Perrault* version of the story–and only nods to the Grimm version in “Why Willy and His Borther Won’t Ever Amount to Anything” without mentioning Perrault at all–the collection is solid with a range of stories to appeal to readers of every age and persuasion. “Deems the Woodcutter” is a delightful story about a myopic woodcutter who misguidedly helps quite a few familiar fairy tale characters while out gathering wood. “Granny and the Wolf” delves deeper into the relationship between Granny and the woodcutter (not to mention the wolf). “Little Red Riding Hood’s Family” offers a very clever, whimsical explanation of why Little Red would not be concerned to find her grandmother looking like a wolf. In the eight stories in this collection Vande Velde offers a different slant on the story. An author’s note starts the volume in which Vande Velde outlines the numerous problems with the original Little Red Riding Hood. This collection runs in the same vein as Vande Velde’s earlier collection The Rumpelstiltskin Problem. Plenty of opportunities for new retellings in Cloaked in Red (2010) by Vivian Vande Velde. How oblivious can one child be? Why was she left unsupervised in the woods? Why a red hood at all? Does Rapunzel’s mother really need lettuce that badly? Rumpelstiltskin’s motivations are fuzzy at best.
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