From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3—"Little Red Hen" repurposed. This gritty, sharply graphic woodcut version of the time-honored tale sets our feathered friend and her slothful sidekicks squarely in the present. Lolling in a state-of-the-art media room, glued to an enormous TV, an indolent trio proffers predictable replies to Hen's entreaties for help with her work: "'Not I,' said the Fat Cat. 'Not I,' said the Dirty Rat. 'Not I,' said the Greedy Pig." So it's Hen who plants and waters and weeds her seed, which grows to be the sheltering tree under which her little red chick is born. When, in time, Mother Hen encounters a little cat, a little rat, and a little pig who ask, "Who will let us in to play under the tree?" her response is—you guessed it—"Not I!" Her chick, appalled at Mother's unkindness, calls her out and asks them in. At the end of the day, Hen sends the visitors home with green seeds of their very own. Matthews's hand-painted Japanese woodblock illustrations, black and white and red all over—with, of course, an important touch of green—are striking editorial panoramas that give readers a sense of the tension (and the undeniable connection) between city and country, between environmentalism and careless consumerism, and between egotism and the greater good.—
Kathy Krasniewicz, Perrot Library, Old Greenwich, CT Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"Little Red Hen" repurposed. This gritty, sharply graphic woodcut version of the time-honored tale sets our feathered friend and her slothful sidekicks squarely in the present. . . . Matthew's hand-painted Japanese woodblock illustrations, black and white and red all over--with, of course, an important touch of green--are striking editorial panoramas that give readers a sense of the tension (and the undeniable connection) between city and country, between environmentalism and careless consumerism, and between egotism and the greater good.
School Library Journal
Offers unusual visual impact, as well as a gentle suggestion that children are not culpable for the sins of their parents. . . . Opening scenes of a junk-strewn industrial wasteland that is transformed by the end into grassy, rolling hills add an environmental subtext to this seemingly simple yet multilayered import.
Kirkus Reviews
The elegance of the artistic style, with its delicate patterning and austere outlines, provides amusing contrast in the depictions of the going-to-pot mammals and attractive scenes of the industrious hen. Young listeners may enjoy comparing this to the original and discussing the difference, or they may just appreciate a story about somebody who decided that lightening up and sharing unilaterally made for a better life.
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
The telling is spare and sprightly, and the story is all on the side of the young. The small, square trim size tidily frames black woodcut prints accented with red for the hen and green for her tree; the modest, prim tone is made mischievous by such details as the sight of Greedy Pig too busy vegging out in front of his flat screen TV to help a friend in need.
Horn Book
With spare, lyrical text and art, the author transforms a classic into a tale for our times.
New York Post
