5-stars for "The Girl in the Red Cape: A Mystical Sled Ride" by Suzy Davies, illustrated by Michele Bourke


Customer Review
Dan Santos
5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, the secrets of Little Red Riding Hood
Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2020
From time to time the child in us revisits the fairy tales which have been there like forever. I don’t know about you, but I often wonder if a particular fairy tale holds meanings we missed as children. The temptation to reread it grows stronger when little details come to haunt us. Such is the case with Little Red Riding Hood.
It fascinated and even scared me the first time I heard it. A precocious (and frankly a little pain in the butt) kid, I began to ask questions. What illness did her grandmother have? Why didn’t an adult accompany her through the dangerous woods? What’s with the cape and the hood? Who was that girl anyway?
It seems I wasn’t alone in my search for answers to my troubling questions. Suzy Davies decided to tackle the revisit and answer many of the questions. As a parent, I could have predicted the first answer: the kid was a teenager. Sometimes that explains a lot of erratic behavior. But the author went further. She had a name: Stella. And she had an interesting story.
Suzy Davies built a modern day children's book around this traditional fairy tale. She has a tremendous imagination and knows how to tell a story. Moreover, she kept it within the realm of eight to ten year olds. So it is safe to share it with your little ones. And, oh yeah, it has illustrations!
So here’s your chance to begin answering all those questions. It’s a perfect early reader, or even a book to read to your kids at night. Do people still do that?