Pretty Salma: A Little Red Riding Hood Story from Africa [Hardcover]

Niki Daly (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

When Granny asks Pretty Salma to go to the market one day, she warns her not to talk to strangers. But cunning Mr. Dog tricks Salma, and before she knows it, he’s wearing her stripy ntama, her pretty white beads, and her yellow sandals. And he’s on his way to Granny’s house! African culture and flavor infuse this inventive retelling of a favorite fairy tale, and the vibrant lively illustrations bring it to life. The result is a story that combines new and old and spans cultures as successfully as it has spanned the centuries.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3—Daly's boldly colored illustrations perfectly match this West African incarnation of the classic story. Pretty Salma is sent to the market by her grandmother and told to come straight home, but she takes a shortcut through the wild part of town and encounters Mr. Dog, who tricks her out of her basket, sandals, ntama, scarf, and beads. Mr. Dog scares Salma off and he goes to Granny's house to trick her. Meanwhile, Salma finds her grandfather in his Anansi costume telling stories in the village square and the two of them quickly set off to rescue Granny. The cartoon-style paintings capture the sights and flavor of the setting and add dimension and humorous details to this modern version of a timeless tale. Enjoyable on its own, this story would be especially fun combined with and compared to the many other "Little Red" stories available.—Genevieve Gallagher, Murray Elementary School, Charlottesville, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In this playful fractured fairy tale set in Ghana, Salma encounters big, bad Mr. Dog while she is shopping on the wild side of town. Ignoring Granny's message ("Don't talk to strangers"), she is tricked into giving him her pretty things. He then tricks Granny into thinking he is Salma. But Salma dresses up with the mask of the bogeyman, and with help from storyteller Grandpa, she sends the bad dog on his way. Daly's line-and-watercolor art, more folkloric than that in his popular Jamela's Dress (1999), shows a mixture of the traditional and the contemporary in a Ghanaian urban setting--a man in a Western-style suit with a briefcase walks next to a woman carrying her shopping on her head. Add this lively version to other comic retellings of the Red Riding Hood story and other beloved tales. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Clarion Books; First American Edition edition (April 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618723455
• ISBN-13: 978-0618723454
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 10 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #261,908 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Little Red Riding Hood, set in modern-day Ghana, September 11, 2007

By 

DJ Joe Sixpack (...in Middle America) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Pretty Salma: A Little Red Riding Hood Story from Africa (Hardcover)

In retelling "Little Red Riding Hood" in a modern, urban African setting, Niki Daly gives an old story a new spin, and makes contemporary African life a little more tangible to non-African readers. As a fairy-tale, though, the story is a bit intense: taking Red out of the distant, mythical woods and placing her instead in the much more tangible, menacing setting of the Accra marketplace, into a big city with a "wild side of town," makes the story's don't-talk-to-strangers message much more scary and real. For that reason, I'd recommend this for older kids, but not preschoolers or kindergarteners... But if you're looking for a multicultural, world-outside offering, this is a good choice. (ReadThatAgain)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good retelling, June 15, 2009

By 

Ulyyf "Connie" (NYC) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pretty Salma: A Little Red Riding Hood Story from Africa (Hardcover)

This version of Red Riding Hood takes place in a city, with a black protagonist. Well, I live in a city, and my nieces are black, so I decided to take a chance and get this book sight unseen. (Besides, I've liked other books by this author, though they're a vastly different style!)

This one is great. First, the wolf (the dog) tricks Salma out of her clothes, then he goes to her home to steal her food. Meanwhile, Salma doesn't just wait for rescue, she goes and gets help! So everybody is saved and learns their moral lesson. Otherwise, it's the story you know. No violence in this version.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Disaster is on the horizon until Salma figures out how to thwart trouble, April 13, 2007

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pretty Salma: A Little Red Riding Hood Story from Africa (Hardcover)

Pretty Salma lives with her grandparents in town and knows the rules about talking to strangers - but when Granny asks her to do the marketing Mr. Dog tricks her into talking to him - and tricks her out of some other things, too. Suddenly he's on his way to Granny's house - in her clothing. Disaster is on the horizon until Salma figures out how to thwart trouble in this fine 'Red Riding Hood' tale from Africa, perfect for picturebook collections seeking multicultural representations of folk stories.