Little Red Gliding Hood

by Tara Lazar, Troy Cummings (Illustrator)

Overview

Little Red Riding Hood straps on ice skates in this fractured fairy tale! A figure-skating enthusiast, Little Red has worn out her skates and must win a pairs competition to earn new ones. But who will be her partner? The Dish is already skating with the Spoon, and Hansel has Gretel. You won’t believe what big eyes, sharp teeth, and furry paws her partner has . . . all the better to spin her with!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780385370066
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	10/27/2015
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	9.38(w) x 9.31(h) x 0.34(d)
Lexile:	AD590L (what's this?)
Age Range:	2 - 5 Years

About the Author

Street magic performer. Hog-calling champion. Award-winning ice sculptor. These are all things TARA LAZAR has never been (though she was a champion figure skater!). Instead, she writes quirky, humorous picture books featuring magical places that adults never find. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and two young daughters. If they had a dog, it would be a small white fluffy thing named Schluffy.
 
TROY CUMMINGS has been writing and illustrating since he was a little kid. Among other things, he’s the creator of Giddy-Up, Daddy!, the tale of a man mistaken for a horse, and The Eensy-Weensy Spider Freaks Out! (Big-Time!), another creative spin-off (pun intended) of a favorite kids’ rhyme. He lives in Greencastle, Indiana, with his nice family and mean cat.

Editorial Reviews

07/13/2015
An icy enchanted forest is home to a bevy of fairy tale characters, including Little Red Gliding Hood, an ice skater set on winning a new pair of skates in a skating competition. Lazar packs her story with fairy tale–based jokes as Little Red finds an ally in the Big Bad Wolf, who is also a capable skater. The competition gets off to a rocky start (“The wolf frightened Little Miss Muffet away. She bumped Little Jack Horner into the corner. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall”), but Little Red and the wolf emerge victorious. Cummings’s cartoons feel as slick as ice, creating a playful backdrop for Lazar’s wintry nursery rhyme punning. Ages 2–5. Author’s agent: Ammi-Joan Paquette, Erin Murphy Literary Agency. Illustrator’s agent: Ronnie Ann Herman, Herman Agency. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

PRAISE FOR LITTLE RED GLIDING HOOD:

"The reliably fun concept of odd-couple ice skaters is perfectly meshed into a clever narrative enhanced by candy-colored artwork ripe with inside jokes. This one begs to be read, both over the river and through the woods." —Booklist, Starred

"An icy enchanted forest is home to a bevy of fairy tale characters, including Little Red Gliding Hood, an ice skater set on winning a new pair of skates in a skating competition. Lazar packs her story with fairy tale-based jokes....Cummings's cartoons feel as slick as ice, creating a playful backdrop for Lazar's wintry nursery rhyme punning." —Publisher's Weekly

"No skating on thin ice here—it's a winner."  —Kirkus Reviews


"A wonderful winter-themed fractured fairy tale with so many clever details that kids will want to read again and again." —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

09/01/2015
K-Gr 3—With a swizzle and a twizzle, Little Red Gliding Hood skates across the title page as she heads down the river of a wintery wonderland. Along the way, she notices a banner for a skating competition with golden skates offered as the prize. Her rundown pair needs to be replaced, but there's a problem—she needs a partner. In this funny fairy tale and nursery rhyme mash-up, characters from their respective stories team up to compete, but what about Red? Turns out the Big Bad Wolf is not so bad, and he needs some new skates, too. Many other tales also make cameos, and it's fun to try and name those that the text does not mention. The text, which strings together revised versions of well-known lines ("All the king's horses and all the king's men put the competition together again"), is the centerpiece. Everything is united by a cartoon style with magical colors—think Candy Land in winter. Even with all the changes, the story still follows the general drift of the original: little girl goes to her grandma's house, wolf appears, and a woodsman tries to save the day. Only one aspect differs significantly…the wolf is on the winning side. VERDICT A wonderful winter-themed fractured fairy tale with so many clever details that kids will want to read again and again.—Rachel Forbes, Oakville Public Library, Ontario, Canada

School Library Journal

2015-07-15
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. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews