I AM SO CLEVER

The Big Bad Wolf ends up hoist by his own petard…or to be more precise, Grandma’s nightie.

Having received proper comeuppance twice before, in I Am So Strong (2011) and I Am So Handsome (2012), the self-congratulatory wolf once again has a great fall—dashing ahead of Little Red Riding Hood, finding Grandma absent, and, after donning her nightie for a disguise, managing to lock himself out of the cottage. The disguise proves so good that a hunter, three little pigs, seven dwarves (“Hi ho! Hi ho! / Off to the creek we go. / It’s far too hot / to work a lot / hi ho, hi ho, hi ho…”), and other familiar passers-by fail to recognize him. Struggling but failing to take the nightie off, the enraged wolf at last takes a leap at Little Red…only to trip over the hem (see “great fall,” above): “No iff not funny!” he wails. “I’ve broken all my teeff! And I’m twapped in diff terrible dweff!” The tale ends rather abruptly with the unflappable Little Red offering to unbutton the nightie, but the wolf’s travails and, in the final scene, hangdog expression will leave readers feeling at least a little sympathy for the beleaguered baddie. Human figures (and dwarves) are white in the informally drawn cartoon illustrations.

Poor wolf can’t catch a break—much less a meal.