I Am Not Little Red Riding Hood

by Alessandro Lecis, Linda Wolfsgruber (Illustrator)

Overview

A little girl enters the snowy forest wearing a vibrant red scarf and holding a basket in hand. But don't be fooled—this is not a story about Little Red Riding Hood! The little girl soon meets, not an incredulous wolf, but rather a courteous, white bear. When asked what is in the basket she replies, "Nothing. I'm collecting snow, soft snow." The bear then leads her to the very best snow, which can only be found where the moon sleeps.

Once they arrive, the little girl and bear dance among the snowflakes. He informs her that she can't keep the snow; it will inevitably melt. Regardless, the girl fills her basket with snow and the bear brings her home. After parting ways, she realizes the bear was right—the snow has disappeared, just as the bear has. With endearing characters and a simple, poetic style, Alessandro Lecis and Linda Wolfsgruber have successfully created a mystical tale about enjoying the here and now and the magic of the winter season.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781628733563
Publisher:	Sky Pony
Publication date:	11/01/2013
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	28
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Alessandro Lecis was born in Milan, Italy, and is an author who frequently collaborates with fellow Italian artist, Alexandra Panzeri. They founded the studio Ale+Ale, and their design images have appeared in such magazines as Rolling Stone and Elle.

Linda Wolfsgruber was born in Brunico, Italy. Since 1984, she has worked as a freelance illustrator and graphic artist. Wolfsgruber has presented her work in many exhibitions and has received numerous awards, including the Austrian Prize for Children and Teen Literature for illustration. She has illustrated over thirty children's books, about fifteen of which she was also the author. Her books have been translated into fifteen languages.

Editorial Reviews

…enigmatic, like the best folklore…enchanting…

The New York Times Book Review - Sarah Harrison Smith

10/07/2013
Although the title seems to promise a parody, Lecis’s story, written originally in German, has other intentions. He abandons the dread of the original story and reimagines the dark woods as a place of dreamy possibility. The girl in the red scarf meets a gentle polar bear, not a seductive wolf, and she looks for snow to put into her own basket instead of carrying a meal to her grandmother’s. Rocking her to sleep as he walks, the bear carries the girl off to find snow that’s “fluffier than the clouds, whiter than milk, and fresher than vanilla ice cream.” “Wake up, we’re here,” the bear tells her as he lifts her high in the air and twirls her around. “It’s time to dance.” Wolfsgruber combines etching with washes of color and collage, setting the warm white fur and great bulk of the bear against dark skies and shadowy tree shapes, the girl’s red scarf adding a stroke of color to every spread. Lecis reminds readers that stories are just that—only stories—and that they are theirs to remake as they choose. Ages 3–6. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

11/01/2013
K-Gr 2—Those hoping for a sassy fractured fairy tale will be confused by this picture book. After the first few pages, in which the red-scarf-clad protagonist brushes off any comparison with Little Red, the story takes a poetic and dreamlike turn. She does not meet a wolf in the woods, but a white bear, who takes her to where "the moon lies sleeping" to collect the best snow to fill her empty basket. All night, the girl and the bear dance, collect snow, and eat snowflakes; at dawn the bear returns the girl to her home with a once-again-empty basket, but with new wisdom: "The bear was right: I could look at the snow, I could play and dance in the snow, but I could not keep the snow." The full-spread color and line illustrations of the pair playing in the night reinforce the dreamy mood, and the winter hues make the cold tangible. As an individual story, this fable might be a bit quiet for the read-aloud crowd; it is better suited for a cozy one-on-one bedtime reading on a winter's eve.—Rebecca Dash Donsky, New York Public Library

School Library Journal

2013-10-01
The title is the most intriguing part of this sweet, benign but insubstantial offering. A small girl, doll-like, with bright cheeks, wide coat and striped stockings, tells her story: Though she wore a red scarf and took a basket into the woods, she is not Little Red Riding Hood. Instead of a wolf, she meets a white bear, to whom she explains that she is "…collecting snow, soft snow: whiter than milk, fluffier than the clouds, and fresher than vanilla ice cream." The illustrations are soft, perhaps silk-screened or stamped, in washed hues of blue and gray accented with red. The bear offers to take her "where the moon hangs in the sky." There, they dance in the falling snow. The bear eats snowflakes while the girl collects them in her basket before they return home at dawn. "When we arrived, I gave the bear my red scarf. ‘Where is your home?' I asked him. The bear didn't answer. He just plodded away." A toy bear sits in the window of the girl's house as the white bear flies overhead, red scarf around his neck. Though such an adventure in a fairy tale might hint of a more fundamental transaction, here it's clearly just a dream. Light as a snowflake and very quiet despite the swirling snow and the dancing. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews