Review – Cloaked in Red
27 Nov 2010 Leave a Comment
in Reviews Tags: author:vivian vande velde, genre:classics retold, genre:humor, genre:short stories
Cloaked in Red by Vivian Vande Velde
We are all familiar with the classic fairy tale. Little Red Riding Hood terrified me as a child. Let’s be honest here, most things terrified me as a child. There is something extra creepy about a talking wolf that masquerades as a grandmother. I can still see the gray snout protruding from under the covers. But I love it! The Little Red Riding Hood theme is hot now. Here’s the latest book of short stories about our infamous girl in red.
Four ingredients: a grandmother, a wolf, a woodsman and a girl in red. Vivian Vande Velde has given us eight incarnations of this tried and true recipe. From the very start we see that the author has some problems with the traditional story. Little Red is described as dimwitted, her mother is neglectful and the conclusion is just not plausible. She deconstructs an old favorite, pointing out the faults of the premise. Twisting the original, Vande Velde retells the story from all points of view. We see the wolf as misunderstood because no one speaks wolf, grandma as a werewolf, the woodsman with a crush on grandma and even a magical red cloak to goes on to a more heroic role.
Fan of fairy tales or not, this book is a riot. I can’t even pick a favorite. You’d think eight stories with the same central characters would be stagnant, but not in the least. Vande Velde lets the hypocrisy of this cautionary tale shine through and gives new life to a classic.
