RED RIDING HOOD

Werewolves are both danger and dark romantic element in this teen retelling of the traditional tale, soon to be in a theater near you. Seventeen-year-old Valerie is beautiful, fearless and different from others in the medieval village of Daggorhorn, which has been living under a curse requiring them to offer an animal sacrifice to the Wolf every full moon. Suddenly a blood moon appears, and people start dying. Father Solomon heightens the fear, insisting the Wolf is living among them, not in the woods. Valerie, already torn between the love of Henry, the well-off young blacksmith, and Peter, her close childhood friend and woodcutter, comes to doubt everyone, even her beloved Grandmother. The digital enhancements of this e-book—created as background to the upcoming film by Catherine Hardwicke, director of Twilight—include an audio introduction and seven short appendices featuring audio/video clips and images on the writing process, concept artwork, storyboards and design (sets, props, costumes). Neither interactive nor integral to the text, they are the functional equivalent of quickly digested color insert pages in a paperback. Written on the film set in the space of four weeks (according to the embedded video discussion among the director, scriptwriter and young debut author), the mostly pedestrian novelization ends prematurely, with an invitation to visit www.redridinghoodbook.com, which currently promises a final chapter “soon” (a countdown widget indicates “soon” is the movie’s release date, March 11, 2011). It’s hard to know if readers will bother. (Paranormal romance. 12 & up)