LITTLE RED GLIDING HOOD

A girl in a hood glides into a new version of an old story.

Little Red (refreshingly, a winsome child of color) is one dazzling ice skater. Trouble is, her skates are so shabby and tight they might soon keep her from her weekly visits to Grandma’s. Then a pairs competition is announced, with new skates as the prize. New problem: everyone else seems to be partnered up already—Hansel with Gretel, the Dish with the Spoon, for example—or is unsuitable. Red dashes to Grandma’s for ideas. However, the Big Bad Wolf frightens her, and she skates away with lightning speed, nearly taking a nasty spill. Not to worry: Wolf rescues Red, compliments her prowess, and points out his own worn-out skates. Can you guess who’ll be Red’s partner? The day of the event, Wolf terrifies all the other competitors, but he’s redeemed when Red declares they’re a pair. Their spins and twirls leave everyone else in the, er, dust, and Mother Goose is on hand to award them their brand-new skates. Readers up on popular fairy tales and nursery rhymes will savor and chuckle at the sly visual and textual allusions to a host of well-known characters from these familiar childhood tales. The author also humorously works (and twerks) well-known phrases from these stories and rhymes into her text. The colorful retro illustrations are aptly cartoonlike, portraying characters, Red in particular, with large innocent eyes, befitting make-believe, updated protagonists.

No skating on thin ice here—it’s a winner.