RED RIDING HOOD

In his first book, an English artist stays close to Perrault in a spare, graceful retelling with full-bleed double-spread paintings that—like Montresor's art (1991)—emphasize the story's link to the world of dream. Coady's hazy, unfocused figures appear in the background of his roughly textured art, or as shadows or close-ups centered on such telling details as eyes. The superimposed text is not always easy to read on the dark ground, and the phrasing of the concluding moral is pedestrian; still, a dramatic setting that powerfully evokes the tale's inherent nightmare quality with its deep, luminous colors and suggestive shadows, leaving specifics to the imagination. (Folklore/Picture book. 4-8)