Little Red Riding Hood

French artist Chauffrey paints the famous basket-carrying grandchild as a dreamy girl with almond-shaped eyes, elongated body, and striped stockings. Chauffrey limits her palette to ashy reds and greensand adds complexity with texture instead, picking out the wolf's fur, the shrubs in the garden, and the leaves in the forest with minute strokes of pencil. Against this Persian carpet of a backdrop, Little Red Riding Hood's red cloak jumps out with startling intensity. The heroine with the mischievous expression proves resourceful in the end, but readers may be surprised by how easily she is initially fleeced by the wolf. Don casts most of the storytelling as dialogue ("I wonder what that wolf has eaten today?" the hunter wonders aloud. "His belly looks enormous") and concludes her tale with a crisp, up-to-date lesson: "Granny locked her door when she went to bed. And Little Red Riding Hood never turned round to talk to strangers again." The enclosed CD is read by Imelda Staunton, who readers may recognize from her performance as Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter movies. Ages 3%E2%80%938. (Oct.)