I’m a sucker for fairy story retellings, from Cinderella to LGBTQ and gender-flipped iterations. What can I say? As far as I’m involved, there are by no means sufficient. As lengthy as there are writers and storytellers there will probably be inventive new takes on the basic tales handed down by means of the generations. One of these tales that’s instructed time and time once more is the story of Little Red Riding Hood. A woman on her solution to take some goodies to her sick grandmother is instructed to not stray from the trail…however when she meets a wolf on the way in which, she doesn’t do as she was instructed. The wolf eats her grandmother and takes on her kind to attempt to trick Red. But what if it didn’t need to go that method?
In these Little Red Riding Hood retellings we get to see how the story may’ve performed out otherwise. In some the wolf takes the place of Little Red, in others she turns into the hunter as an alternative of the hunted. Some are set within the twenty first century whereas others sweep us away right into a timeless fairy story world. But in all circumstances these distinctive takes are able to maintain an age outdated story thriving even into modern-day.
Picture Books for Young Readers
Very Little Red Riding Hood by Teraesa Heapy & Sue Heap
Little Red Riding Hood could be very little and really excited to go to her grandmother for a sleepover. She’s packed her tea set, her blanket, and all of the tea and muffins a toddler may ever need. And no wolf goes to get in her method! Join Very Little Red Riding Hood for a really large journey.
Violet and the Woof by Rebecca Grabill, illustrated by Dasha Tolstikova
Instead of the woods, Violet and her little brother should traverse the lengthy halls of their house constructing so as to carry soup to a sick neighbor. Their actual and imagined adventures alongside the way in which make for an enthralling experience — particularly when their sick neighbor seems to look very very similar to a wolf.
Lon Po Po by Ed Young
In this Chinese fairy story that pulls comparisons to Little Red Riding Hood, a mom of three daughters should go away her kids alone whereas going to go to their granny. She warns them to maintain the door locked tight, however when a voice claiming to be their Po Po, their grandmother, comes knocking on the door, they don’t have any alternative however to let her in. Except her voice is terribly low and her face is terribly bushy. And that’s as a result of it’s not their grandmother…it’s Granny Wolf.
Middle Grade
Hamra and the Jungle of Memories by Hanna Alkaf (March 28, 2023)
When Hamra forgets probably the most essential guidelines of the jungle — don’t take something with out permission — she finds herself hunted by a weretiger who will solely forgive her debt if she helps him regain his humanity. It’s a beautiful Malaysian retelling of the unique filled with fantasy and folklore and journey.
Red: The True Story of Red Riding Hood by Liesl Shurtliff
Red isn’t afraid of something — besides magic. But when her granny grows sick, it appears that evidently magic is likely to be the one factor that may save her. Along with a porridge-obsessed lady named Goldie, Red units out on a journey that can take her by means of dwarven caverns and beast’s castles so as to discover a remedy for her grandmother. But it’s the wolf and the woodsman following the ladies and searching for their assist to defeat one and different that may possess the very magical answer Red is in search of.
The Little Red Wolf by Amélie Fléchais
This darkish retelling flips the script by casting a younger wolf as Little Red. The Little Red Wolf is on a journey to carry his grandmother a rabbit, however when he crosses path’s with a younger human lady who provides to assist, it looks as if a innocent scenario. But the little wolf has been warned about people. And although the lady appears good, good shouldn’t be the identical nearly as good.
The ending is kind of darkish, so be certain this one goes to be applicable for the younger readers in your life earlier than recommending it.
Young Adult
For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten
This e-book that blends Little Red Riding Hood with Beauty and the Beast follows the second daughter born to the queen and destined to be sacrificed to the wolf. As the primary second daughter born in centuries, it’s hoped that Red’s sacrifice to the Wolf within the Woods will imply the return of the gods. But it seems the wolf is a person, and the magical talents she has all the time seen as a curse are literally a present that would assist save the Wilderwood.
Red Wolf by Rachel Vincent
Like everybody raised in Oakvale, Adele has been taught to keep away from the darkish woods that encompass the village. Lightless and filled with monsters, nobody ventures into the woods until completely needed. But in contrast to others, Adele has good purpose to enterprise into the woods. She is a guardian. She comes from a protracted line of girls who’re capable of shift into wolves to guard the folks of their village. But following her calling means abandoning the one she loves and residing a lifetime of secrecy. Faced with a future very totally different from the one she imagined for herself, Adele should determine simply how far she’s keen to go to guard the folks of Oakvale.
Adult
How to Be Eaten by Maria Adelmann
This retelling set in current day New York options basic fairy story characters reimagined as girls in a trauma assist group. These characters embrace the winner of a actuality present who didn’t fairly get her fairy story ending, the previous lover of a blue-bearded billionaire psychopath, a girl devoured by a wolf who now wears him as a coat and others reckon with variations — and their similarities — as they hear every others tales solely to understand they’ve extra in widespread than any of them may’ve suspected.
Burning Roses by S.L. Huang
What if it was Red Riding Hood who hunted the wolf? Many years in the past, Rosa made unhealthy decisions. And now she’s paying for them. Alongside Hou Yi the Archer, Rosa makes an attempt to make up for the sins of her previous by stopping the lethal sunbirds from razing the countryside. But each are haunted by hindsight and the results of the alternatives they’ve made are nonetheless catching up with them, even as we speak. And when Hou Yi’s previous comes calling, Rosa should reckon with the explanations she left her personal homeland so a few years in the past — and why she will be able to by no means return.
And Little Red Riding Hood retellings aren’t the one ones we like to speak about right here at Book Riot. Let’s maintain feeding this fairy story retelling obsession, lets?
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