This inventive, largely wordless "Little Red Riding Hood" remix begins as bearded Big Red and young Little Red, both pale-skinned and red-haired, together bake a cake at the Pat-a-Cake Bakery. Their speech balloons contain not words, but pictures that initially show someone with gray hair and spectacles--Grandma, presumably--before Little Red sets off with the cake. The duo's golden cat (whose pictorial cake thoughts border on the obsessive), follows Little Red through a village whose storefronts feature famous nursery rhyme characters ("Humpty-Dumpty Insurance") and whose denizens are of varying skin tones. When the cat thinks it will be spotted, it flattens itself hilariously against handy cat images, such as a band poster and a park monument of Puss in Boots. Upon the feline's arrival at Grandma's house, the fairy tale undergoes another twist. Lehman fills the spreads with information and diversion: there are hidden sheep to find, nursery rhyme characters to identify (one pair in the park, for example, falls down a hill and bumps their heads), and a nursery rhyme newspaper on the endpapers to read. Yet there's no excess busy-ness--the Caldecott Honoree's clean, clear lines offer a sense of structured calm. Ages 6--9. (Nov.)

Lehman's (The Red Book, rev. 9/04) latest is an inventive retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood" -- wordless save for signage and with thought/speech bubbles containing only images (and occasional punctuation). The endpapers having clued us in that we are in the realm of fairy tale and nursery rhyme, the story begins. Wolfie the cat gazes hopefully at the cake that baker Big Red and his child Little Red are making, only to be sadly disappointed when Big Red puts the finished cake into a basket for Grandmother. As Little Red (carefully nongendered) makes the journey through town -- past a host of nursery-rhyme and fairy-tale characters and punnily named shops -- to Grandmother's house, Wolfie surreptitiously follows, humorously hiding in plain sight whenever Little Red pauses to chat with, say, Jack and Jill (whose speech bubble contains an image of a pail) or Little Boy Blue (a trumpet). Eventually Wolfie sprints ahead, dons a disguise, and crawls into Grandmother's bed. Little Red and Grandmother are onto Wolfie, however, and all ends well with the trio happily sharing cake. Throughout, Lehman offers entrancing details for keen-eyed viewers to notice (so many, in fact, that there's a key at the back). But the wealth of detail never distracts from the story's trajectory, thanks in part to the consistency of Little Red's speech bubbles (picturing Grandmother) and Wolfie's thought bubbles (cake) -- until near the end, when they hug goodbye and the bubbles all contain red hearts. Another triumph from a master of wordless picture books. Martha V. Parravano January/February 2022 p.91(c) Copyright 2022. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Wolfie is an orange cat who dreams of cake--never mind the chocolate frosting! Unfortunately the cake in question is destined for Little Red's grandma, should the book follow the "Little Red Riding Hood" plot (and it does). After Little Red, a White child with short ginger hair who wears a red, hooded jacket, bakes and frosts a cake with the help of Big Red, a bearded adult with matching hair and skin, a game of cat and mouse ensues in comic-book--style spreads and panels. Cautious of being caught in pursuit, Wolfie dodges several looks back from Little Red, hiding alongside various images of cats passed along the way. Without narrative text, the book relies on Mother Goose and Brothers Grimm references to hold the visual interest, as a child being followed by a cat doesn't really demand the nearly 64 pages it takes up. For those well versed in nursery rhymes, storefronts like Humpty Dumpty Insurance, Gingerbread Gym, and Mary Q. Contrary Florist may earn a chuckle, but the only real fun is in finding all of Bo Peep's "lost" sheep--often not far from one of her flyers. In a low-stakes climax, Wolfie is outwitted by Grandma and Little Red, who kindly share their cake after a lighthearted prank. Just in case the story--or lack thereof--didn't drag on long enough, readers can follow the pair all the way home again (jiggety jig) and into bed. A key to fairy tales and rhymes referenced--and the rhymes themselves--appears at the back. (This book was reviewed digitally.) An indulgence for Mother Goose die-hards. (Picture book. 4-7) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

This gentle, humorous take on Little Red Riding Hood incorporates numerous references to nursery rhymes, folktales, and fairy tales. Here Little Red, a modern, fair-skinned kid with curly red hair, wears jeans, high-tops, and a red hoodie. Big Red, who appears to be her dad, has baked a cake for her to take across town to Grandma. Neither realizes that Wolfie, their cat, is following along, stalking the cake, but Grandma is more than capable of outsmarting Wolfie. Endpapers drawn to look like a newspaper, along with a map on the back cover, foreshadow Little Red's route and alert readers to the many literary references to be found along the way. Comics-style illustrations employ a mix of panel sizes to keep the narrative moving. While the story itself is wordless, signs on the businesses and nursery rhyme excerpts in the back matter provide an additional layer of humor to the framework of Little Red's journey. Two concluding pages of spot illustrations help readers match up the imagery with their original tales.