LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD

This favorite fairytale has enticed many an illustrator. From Paul Galdone’s standard-setter to Trina Schart Hyman’s Caldecott winner to James Marshall’s comical depiction to Beni Montressor’s sensual version, the little girl in the red hood who escapes the wolf has had an array of faces. These handsome stylized illustrations look like woodcuts but are black-and-white prints made from intricate papercut designs and hand colored with watercolors. Wisnewski sets her retelling in 19th-century New England and used the costumes and interiors at Sturbridge Village (a living-history museum in Massachusetts) as models. Strong, carved-like lines imbue the flora, fauna, fur and fabrics with texture, and the framed text is incorporated into the scenes. This story has two variations: Little Red rides on the wolf’s back to the path to Grandmother’s house, and her father, not the woodsman stranger, comes to her rescue. One puzzling detail is a black shape on the people’s cheeks, almost like an earmuff with fringe but only on one side; it’s clearly not hair, so what exactly is it? Children will ask. Overall, however, an elegant addition to the cache of existing editions. (Picture book/fairy tale. 4-7)