Little Red by Bethan Woollvin

Little Red by Bethan Woollvin

Book Review for teachers

Little Red is a retelling of the classic fairy tale, Little Red Riding Hood. However, unlike the classic version The protagonist of this story is clever and outwits the wolf leading to a very different ending. 

The wolf's intentions are revealed through the illustrations. Through discussion these can be used to develop children's prediction skills and inference.  Some parts of the story are told simply through the use of illustration rather than text, making this a multimodal text in the truest sense.

The protagonist in this story is a modern, street-wise, clever girl who does not need a 'knight in shining armour' to rescue her. As such, this makes the book perfect for looking at stereotypes in fairy tales. It could be used alongside Robert Munsch's The Paperbag Princess and Babette Cole's Princess Smartypants. All 3 of these texts take the traditional passive, vulnerable female character and turn it on its head.

                                   

Woollvin's illustrations use a limited colour palette: black, grey and red. They are bold and offer many opportunities for discussion including, prediction, inference and characterisation. 

For a list of other 'alternative' fairy tales visit The Literacy Classroom.

ISBN 978-1-4472-9140-4

Publisher: Two Hoots: Pan Macmillan

Publication Date: 2016