Little Red Riding Hood

by Bernadette Watts (Illustrator), Brothers Grimm

Overview

The classic Grimm's fairy tale, with stunning illustrations from Bernadette Watts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780735840089
Publisher:	NorthSouth Books
Publication date:	07/01/2011
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 12.40(h) x 0.10(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Bernadette Watts was born in Northampton, England, in 1942. From an early age her father always ensured that she had paper to draw on despite its scarcity in the post-war years.

At the age of six she made her first trip to the cinema to see Walt Disney’s “Pinocchio,” from that moment on it was clear to her that she wanted to draw. This dream started to turn to reality when she received a place to study at Maidstone College of Art where her teachers included Brian Wildsmith, William Stobbs and, later, an unknown young artist by the name of David Hockney.

In 1967 Bernadette went to the Frankfurt Bookfair for the first time. Publisher Dimitri Sidjanski was enchanted with her work and in 1968, her first book, “Little Red Riding Hood,” was published by NordSüd. To this day it remains in print and is among her most loved. Over the next four decades there followed an array of books illustrated by Bernadette, many of them Grimm or Andersen fairy tales but also some self-penned stories. To this day Bernadette is full of ideas for new projects although she increasingly draws inspiration from the everyday flora and fauna around her home in Kent, UK.

Editorial Reviews

``A fresh, utterly funny retelling that invigorates the spirit of the classic tale,'' said PW about Marshall's characteristically wacky version--featuring a supremely sly Wolf-about-town and a heroine oozing virtue from every pore. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The tale of Little Red Riding Hood is a timeless classic which every child should experience. While reading Bernadette Watts' version of the tale, I felt drawn back into my own childhood, having forgotten some of the nuances of Little Red Riding Hood and her infamous journey. Watts' charcoal illustrations give life and depth to the vast forest. Her devious villain—the wolf—appears humanlike and thus accentuates Little Red Riding Hood's slightness and vulnerability. The flowers that serve as the wolf's distraction tactic bloom to life on the pages of the manuscript. Despite my preexisting knowledge of the story's general outcome, the illustrations effectively cast an eerie and suspenseful mood, leaving the reader wondering if Little Red Riding Hood will indeed escape the wolf's clutches. Originally published in Switzerland in 1968, this English version will impress a new generation of booklovers. Reviewer: Jennifer Morrin

Children's Literature - Jennifer Morrin

Gr 1-3

The first retelling is true to the original poignant tale of hunger, cold, and the death of the young girl selling matches on the street. Lavreys's fanciful acrylic paintings soften Andersen's indictment of an indifferent society that allows such poverty and misery to exist. The resignation and calm on the girl's face capture her sadness, as does the artist's palette of soft colors. Bright colors, collage elements, and whimsical landscapes suit Little Red Riding Hood . The girl's coat is a collage of faint words, and she follows a path strewn with vowels through the sun-lit woods. A sinister wolf is coiled around a slanting tree and distracts the child long enough for him to arrive first at Grandma's cottage. This springtime version makes an interesting contrast to Jerry Pinkney's Little Red Riding Hood (Little, Brown, 2007), which takes place in winter. Lavreys's fanciful folk art expands the way young readers and listeners will see this familiar tale.-Mary Jean Smith, Southside Elementary School, Lebanon, TN

School Library Journal

My, what big talent she has! British artist Watts's treatment of this Grimm Brothers favorite was first published in Europe in 1968. Now issued with a new (sadly uncredited) English translation, it will reach a contemporary American audience. The illustrator's detailed, richly colored pictures bear the influence of her mentor, Brian Wildsmith, and she demonstrates her mastery of the picture-book form as she juxtaposes characters across the gutter at strategic moments, employs fully saturated pages at some turns and spot art at others, all heightening readers' focus and dramatic tension at key points. That said, even the inclusion of the oft-excluded scene in which the huntsman sews stones into the belly of the doomed wolf doesn't push the story into terribly frightening graphic content. Earlier, both Grandma and Little Red are devoured offstage in the illustrations, and the four-picture sequence depicting the wolf getting his comeuppance is comical rather than gory. The old is new again here, and this is a welcome addition to the fairy-tale shelf. (Picture book/fairy tale. 5-9)

Kirkus Reviews