And unfortunately, it is these gentle wolves who are the most dangerous ones of all.” It’s safe to say the moral is hinting at a bit more than actual wolves. There are also those who are charming, quiet, polite, unassuming, complacent, and sweet, who pursue young women at home and in the streets. I say “wolf,” but there are various kinds of wolves. *The moral from the Perrault story is as follows: “Children, especially attractive, well bred young ladies, should never talk to strangers, for if they should do so, they may well provide dinner for a wolf. This would be a great collection to pair with picture book versions of Little Red Riding Hood, to read aloud, or even to use as a primer on short story writing. ” Cloaked in Red is filled with stories that are approachable and fun.
With a snappy tone and amusing starts to every story along the lines of “Once upon a time, before department stores and designer labels. 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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