Little Red Riding Hood

Andrea Wisnewski makes the story of Little Red Riding Hood fresh and new in this ingeniously designed retelling. She has set her tale in the rural New England of the early nineteenth century, basing her interiors, architecture, and costumes on models found at Old Sturbridge Village, the living-history museum in western Massachusetts. The images, full of lovingly rendered period detail, are done in a medium Wisnewski has made her own: black-and-white prints made from intricate papercut designs (the results look much like woodcuts) that are then hand painted in gloriously vivid watercolor. This is surely to become the favorite American retelling of this classic tale from Grimm, the one about a stout-hearted little girl and the crafty, hungry wolf.