Review: Honestly, Red Riding Hood Was Rotten! by Trisha Speed Shaskan

Synopsis:

OF COURSE you think I did a horrible thing by eating Little Red Riding Hood and her granny. You don't know the other side of the story. Well, let me tell you...

Pages: 24 pages (Paperback)
Publisher: Capstone
Released: August 1, 2011

One of my all time favourite kids’ books is The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka. I remember reading this as a kid and falling in love. It was also the book that got me into fairy tale retellings, so it has a very special place in my heart. I can praise this book till high noon, because it was funny, it was insightful, and the illustrations were great. But I can’t.

So why did I bring it up? Well, when I heard about Honestly, Red Riding Hood Was Rotten! I was excited. It reminded me of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs with the Big Bad Wolf telling his side of the story about why he ate poor Granny and Little Red Riding Hood. Also, the artwork is cute and reminded me of Capstone’s other novel Secrets, Monsters, and Magic Mirrors.

The story is a simple one. The Big Bad Wolf is a vegetarian and a big lover of apples, whether it’s Golden Delicious, Fuji, Pink Lady, it doesn’t matter because he loves them all! But he’s run out of apples and he’s run out of food, now he’s starving and isn’t sure what to do.

Then one day he smells something wonderful and sees a big apple. The apple in question isn’t a Ginger Gold, Cameo, McIntosh, or even a Zuccalmaglio's Reinette. No, this huge incredibly rare apple is Little Red Riding Hood, who has clearly been snacking on a lot (and I mean a lot) of cakes. When the wolf runs off to Granny’s House expecting to see old women, he’s welcomed by the biggest Granny Smith he’s ever seen.

Gee, the Big Bad Wolf has it rough.

~-.-~

Overall

The story isn’t anything new, but Trisha does help the reader try to see things from a different perspective. And the artwork helps push this point by displaying the wolf’s desperation. The story is also cute and I’m sure any kid would love this.

But due to my love of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and the epicness of that story, I think I felt a tad disappointed in how the story ended up. That isn’t to say this is a bad book, it isn’t. I was just wanting more. The artwork is great though.

3.5 stars

This book was provided by net galley.