Red Riding Hood and the Sweet Little Wolf

The team behind The Three Billy Goats Fluff returns with another slightly softer take on a traditional story. Just how sweet and little is this wolf? She wears daisy chains around her neck, has lavender fur, and “loved all things pretty and pink, especially fairy tales.” The wolf’s parents (who are of the big and bad variety) insist that their daughter pick up the groceries for dinner—the shopping list concludes with “One little girl (tender and juicy)”—but the wolf’s gentle nature gets the best of her. She does wind up wearing Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother’s “lovely pink robe and frilly nightcap,” but only because she “couldn’t resist trying them on!” After a near disaster when Little Red Riding Hood calls for a woodsman (who arrives with a terrifyingly sharp–looking axe), the two girls become friends, providing the sort of “happily ever after” that the wolf loves to read about. Pichon has fun subverting wolf stereotypes in her cheery paintings—the scene of the wolf seated at Grandma’s vanity, happily dousing herself in perfume, is especially amusing. Ages 3–7. (Mar.)