I Am Not Little Red Riding Hood

Although the title seems to promise a parody, Lecis’s story, written originally in German, has other intentions. He abandons the dread of the original story and reimagines the dark woods as a place of dreamy possibility. The girl in the red scarf meets a gentle polar bear, not a seductive wolf, and she looks for snow to put into her own basket instead of carrying a meal to her grandmother’s. Rocking her to sleep as he walks, the bear carries the girl off to find snow that’s “fluffier than the clouds, whiter than milk, and fresher than vanilla ice cream.” “Wake up, we’re here,” the bear tells her as he lifts her high in the air and twirls her around. “It’s time to dance.” Wolfsgruber combines etching with washes of color and collage, setting the warm white fur and great bulk of the bear against dark skies and shadowy tree shapes, the girl’s red scarf adding a stroke of color to every spread. Lecis reminds readers that stories are just that—only stories—and that they are theirs to remake as they choose. Ages 3–6. (Nov.)