Customer Reviews

The Wolf's Story: What Really Happened to Little Red Riding Hood

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There are now many a redux of the classic fairy tale of "Little Red Riding Hood", and a few, as in "What Really Happened to Little Red Riding Hood: The Wolf's Story", the wolf tells his side of the story giving the reader a new perspective, and invariably gets everyone making comparisons (Venn diagrams come to mind) to the original. So that in itself is a good thing for literacy instruction.

Illustrator Izhar Cohen uses many different angles to give depth to the story. At times you feel the wolf is standing right in front of you as he tells his side of the story, which brings immediacy to the tale. At other times, the reader looks down from a bird's eye-view perspective that enhances the action of the story. So the illustrations definitely bring a lot to the story. However, in Forward's version the dialogue seems almost too cute by half, and comes off rather forced.

Changing up the perspective on a classic story is a great way to get children involved and talking about books. Two excellent books that provide a clever twist and are sure to satisfy, are "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" by Jon Scieszka, and "Little Red Riding Hood: A Newfangled Prairie Tale" by Lisa Campbell Ernst.

This is a delightful book. It is fun for both adults and children. The illustrations are well done and you can see something different in the pictures each time you look! A fun read for adults and children.

The dichotomy from being from the wolf's perspective is really fun. I hope you like it as much as my little one does.

Although I think the illustrations are lovely I really disagree with the previous reviewer. During a residency for a Library Science class we were asked to look at ARC of some children's books and this was one of the titles I chose. I found the illustrations did not match the text. The illustrations would have been fine for the original tale of Little Red Riding Hood. But for a reverse of the tale it did not work. The wolf was too scary and one does not sympathize with scary creatures. I would not recommend this title.

Toby Forward hails from Liverpool, England and has written another fine book for children - "The Wolf's Story: What Really Happened to Little Red Riding Hood". Wonderfully illustrated by Ishar Cohen of Palestine, the artwork reinforces the perspective of the wolf on the events in the traditional Little Red Riding Hood story, retold here by the wolf thanks to Toby Forward.

First of all, nothing that happened in the Little Red Riding Hood story was the wolf's fault - "Would I lie to you? It was the old woman who started it". He says that he was just a friendly wolf doing odd jobs for Grandma - "Anyway, I did odd jobs for the old woman. Called her Grandma". Then that spoiled Little Red Riding Hood showed up and ruined everything - "so I leaped out of bed, ...Then she started screaming". Now that you know the truth, you can trust a wolf, can't you? "Do I LOOK like the sort of wolf who goes around eating grandmas?", he asks.

This book is a good example of dishonesty and lying, which the wolf engages in throughout his story. The story helps children to tell the difference between a truthful statement and a false statement that purports to be true. Children learn what it is called when someone says something that is not true - it is called a lie.

This book can be used as an introduction to discussing types of dishonesty with your child, from exaggerating, flattery, twisting the truth, and not telling the whole truth (so you don't get into trouble) to cheating on tests or outright lying. For extension, children can go to www.ImpeachBlair.org and read the lies that Blair manufactured for Bush to do American-powered British empire against Iraqis. Helping children develop honesty and the ability to detect dishonesty is important to their ability to make their own decisions despite attempts by others to manipulate them, whether it be their peers, politicians, or consumer culture.

In short, a wonderful book to help your child detect dishonesty.