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Red Riding Hood

"Red Riding Hood"--the James Marshall re-telling--sticks to the standard story, but it does add some Marshall tricks:

*The punchy wording. Granny isn't "up to snuff." A distraught Riding Hood later says: "Gracious me!"

*The bizarre characters. Granny--like George the hippo--has a "reading" obsession. When Granny emerges from the wolf's stomach, her main grievance is that she has lost some reading time. Also, Red's mother lives in a sea of cats, and she can't keep her custard ("healing" custard) in the bowl.

*The twist at the end. We might take Marshall at his word: Red Riding Hood never talks to strangers after her encounter with the wolf. But Marshall wants to *show* this--so he gives us a courtly alligator, and Red is making a dismissive gesture, as if to say, "Talk to the hand." (This makes me think of Martha, lurking in the shadows, holding a garden hose, on the very last page of the last hippo story.)

Still so inspired by this artist--and wishing he'd had a longer career.....
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