De slimste

by Mario Ramos

Unusual book

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fairy Tales, Humor, Fractured Fairy Tales, Fiction, Folk Tales

40 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Mario Ramos (1958–2012) was one of Belgium's most influential picture book makers. He was born in Brussels to a Belgian mother and a Portuguese father.

Reviews

[Elizabeth]

What happened to the ending? I feel like my book is missing pages at the end!

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pretty standard retelling of Little Red Riding Hood randomly starts inserting characters from other fairy tales near the end and then just stops so abruptly that I found myself rubbing the last page between between my fingers and prying at it with my fingernails sure that another page must be stuck to it with the real ending. Blechhh.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

First sentence: One gloriously sunny morning, the wolf came upon Little Red Riding Hood: “Hello, my dear! How fine you look in that delightful outfit.”

Premise/plot: the wolf never doubts his cleverness in this fairytale remix. This one does offer a twist or two. When the wolf arrives, Grandma is not home. But he does find her nightgown and dons it. Will his disguise fool anyone?! Maybe. Maybe not. But the wolf ends up regretting his decision...

My thoughts: I wanted to love it. I didn’t. I think I picked this one up because of the cover. I loved the expression on his face. The illustrations of the wolf were great. (The people not so much.) The text was translated into English from the French. I liked it well enough. But it didn’t wow me.

Text: 3/5
Illustrations: 4/5
Total: 7/10

[The Book Squirrel · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a very bad retelling of the Red Riding Hood tale. I'll allow that it probably would have been better in the original French, but the last page just didn't work AT ALL! I kept flicking back and forth looking for the next page.
It looked great to start with, but nothing about it was "clever".

[Fatima Seraj Alam · Rating 4 out of 5]

GoodReads glitched while I wrote this long azz review so I am going to make it shorter this time. Daughter loved it so much that I had to reread as soon as I finished it the first time. The ending was abrupt. Wanted more.

[Sigrid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grappig prentenboek, waarin je denkt, dat je in het sprookje Roodkapje bent beland. Toch komen er allerlei andere sprookjesfiguren voorbij van de 7 dwergen uit Sneeuwwitje tot de prins uit Doornroosje. Hierdoor gaat de verhaallijn steeds een beetje anders, dan dat je verwacht.
Ik ben benieuwd, hoe jonge kinderen dit vinden.

(9e boek Boekenbingo 2017)

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally published in French, this picture book provides a nice twist on the classic "Little Red Riding Hood" story. As in the original version, Red Riding Hood is on her way to visit her grandmother when she happens upon a wolf. He warns her of the dangers in the woods and suggests that she pick some flowers for the elderly woman. Delighted to have such a tender morsel as his next meal, the wolf heads to Grandmother's house and puts on her pink nightgown in order to fool the little girl. The grandmother is nowhere in sight, and the wolf is accidentally left outside the house when the wind blows the door shut. Since he's wearing the nightgown and looks decidedly unwolf-like, he endures several embarrassing encounters when passersby mistake him for the elderly woman. By the time, Red Riding Hood arrives, the wolf is utterly humiliated and dependent on the girl's kindness in getting him free from that pesky nightie. As the text and illustrations show, he is nowhere near as clever as he thought he was. This picture book will entertain young readers as they watch the wolf try to hide among the trees in the forest, hopeful that things will eventually work out but not wanting anyone to see him in his state of embarrassment and unusual clothing choice. I'm sure readers will wonder exactly where Grandmother's been all this time.

[Juliana Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story starts out like the traditional Little Red Riding Hood, but changes when the wolf gets to grandma's house. There he finds her nightie on the bed and puts it on. He accidentally locks himself out of the house and as he waits for Little Red to arrive a multitude of other fairy tale characters (including the three pigs, prince charming, the three bears etc) pass by, each one calling the wolf Grandma. This infuriates the wolf who is not recognized as himself. In the end Little Red finally comes along and she too mistakes the wolf for grandma. When he tries to attack her, his nightie gets caught in a root and he falls and breaks his teeth. The story ends with her saying "Oh poor wolf... but you mustn't get so upset. It's very bad for you," said Little Red Riding Hood. "Now keep still - I can get you out of there!" (meaning the nightie) But what happened? The ending left me very disappointed.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars I liked this and kids will like the appearance of the seven dwarves, Sleepy Beauty's prince, the Three Bears, etc. They will especially like following the cardinals and rabbit with the hunter's glasses. The wolf is a strongly portrayed as a "bad guy" with all his sneakiness and selfishness.
Will change some of the translation when I read it aloud to my Kinder and First grades. When he calls her a "little raspberry" or "little berry", it seems to be a term of endearment. But the "little cherry for the the first course" just feels wrong when I read it aloud to 5-6 year olds. So yes, I will use this in a fractured fairy tale unit, but will edit the telling just a bit. Lost a star to abrupt ending. Thankfully, the wolf has lost his teeth. I will have fun reading all the voices of this cast of characters.

[Molly Cluff (Library!) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun take on the classic Little Red Riding hood story, but a bit meandering. Starts out with the typical story, only the wolf gets dressed up in the granny outfit before finding Granny, then encounters many other fairytale characters in the forest that mistake him for Granny. Frustrated he can't get the nightgown off, he runs into Little Red, tries to eath her, trips on the nightgown, and bashes his teeth. The ending felt really untidy to me (Little Red sympathizes with the wolf and helps him escape the nightgown. Wouldn't it be smarter to head for the hills at that point?? And then we don't get any follow-up on that)

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd have given this book a fourth star if the ending hadn't been so odd. It felt like the book ended the way it did in order to avoid drawing more pages or something. There were some delightful bits, like giving a Prince Charming character an actual fancy name, albeit one that says he isn't a prince...and the fairy tale characters wandering through the story were great, but, um...what happened to Granny? And when did Red figure out what was going on?
Still, it's cute, and I might share it with kids already familiar with Red Riding Hood and the other stories referenced.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this book because I am so clever. On the way he meets the three gnomes... elves... I think it was elves or gnomes... and there was also... they sing this song: "Yo ho, yo ho, too hot too hot to work: we're off to the stream" or something like that. There was also Sleeping Beaty and the Three Little Pigs saying, "Hi grandmother, tell us is you see the wolf."

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

(early) the Big Bad Wolf meets Little Red Riding Hood wandering through the woods, thinking he has a clever plan for his dinner—of course surprises ensue. It was a fun read. 2019 hardback via Madison County Public Library, Berea (discovered by my spouse who is a volunteer checking in books on Monday’s), unnumbered pgs.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few people have said this, but the translation from the original French moves so fast and ends so abruptly, it feels like it has pages missing. A shame, because the conceit behind the story is a fun one.

[mg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Agreed with other reviewers that it's an abrupt ending, but I love it as a chance to get kids talking about what THEY think happens next. Also a good set-up for chapter books that have less-than-satisfying endings.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

copyright: 2019
genre: traditional literature
theme: good vs. evil
My favorite part of this book was how the wolf was outsmarted every step of the way but not on purpose. It was very funny.
I would use this book to show that there are multiple sides to all stories.

[Marcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quirky retelling of LRRH. Funny and sweet. One thing that is odd about this book is the too-short blurb inside the front cover. Couldn’t someone have come up with a little something to fill all that empty space??!!

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started out as a good fairy tale retelling from the wolf's perspective but devolved into a not-funny mish mosh of fairy tale references and then ended without any resolution like the publisher left a few pages out of the book. Weird.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fractured version of Little Red Riding Wolf with appearances from the 3 Little Pigs and more!

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun fractured fairy tale take on Little Red Riding Hood orginally published in France.

[Sharie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love it, but too abrupt of an ending

[Shauna Yusko]

Um, I feel like there wasn’t an ending. Like my copy is missing the last few pages. But I wasn’t really a fan before that.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kind of clever.

[Syntha Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it but the ending was abrupt.

[molliekay · Rating 1 out of 5]

What just happened...?

[kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

okay, but I feel like it had missed potential

[Miss Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

An elementary level take on the classic little red riding hood where the wolf has a very bad day. clever ending

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another mixed up fairy tale from Mario Ramos that offers a fun new look at familiar characters.

[The Library Lady · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, but not as funny or clever as the author thinks it is. And as others have noted, it ends rather abruptly.

[Jennie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A retelling if Little Red Riding Hood where the wolf tries and fails to outsmart Little Red, Grandma and a number of other fairy tale characters.