Melissa "Dog/Wolf Lover" Martin's Reading & Ramblings: Cloaked in Red by Vivian Vande Velde

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Cloaked in Red by Vivian Vande Velde

So you think know the story of Little Red Riding Hood, the girl with the unfortunate name and the inability to tell the difference between her grandmother and a member of a different species? Well, then, try your hand at answering these questions:

-Which character (not including Little Red herself) is the most fashion challenged?

-Who (not including the wolf) is the scariest?

-Who (not including Granny) is the most easily scared?

-Who is the strangest? (Notice we're not "not including" anyone, because they're all a little off.)

-Who (no fair saying "the author") has stuffing for brains?

Vivian Vande Velde has taken eight new looks at one of the world's most beloved (and mixed-up) stories. You may never look at fairy tales in quite the same way again. @goodreads

MY REVIEW:

4 STARS

This was a nice, short book of Red Riding Hood stories. And I have to say no wolves were killed in this book or else I would set fire to those peopled! =)

Okay on with the stories:

The Red Cloak

This story is about Meg who is sent out to her granny's house but she spies a wolf on the way. She keeps going even though she is terrified and then she runs into a woodsman that is doing some illegal chopping of trees. She asks him to help her but then he turns all menacing and she does some things to sic the wolf on him. Let's just say he spends a lot of time up the tree's that belong to the King. And Little Red skips merrily away! lol

The Red Riding Hood Doll

This story was a little creepy. Georgette was a seamstress in her mother's shop. One day after dealing with a horrible customer, Georgette decides to make herself a life size doll. Her mother wasn't happy about this and told her she would take it out of her wages. Georgette loved her little girl doll, she always wanted a child of her own and now she does in a way. She even has a little red cloak. After spending the night in the woods with her doll, she is awakened by the woodsmen to find out her doll came to life. I was hoping it was going to be more creepy but it wasn't so this was my least favorite story.

Little Red Riding Hood's Family

This is a story of Roselle who has to take supper to her granny because her mom sprained her ankle. Roselle's father was afraid of granny because she had a temper. This is one of my favorite stories because granny is not what she seems but Roselle isn't either =)

Granny and the Wolf

In this story the granny, Nelda, is out in the woods one day and she finds a wolf in a trap that she saves. She takes the shite trap away as well. She tends to the wound and the wolf decides to follow her home and stay with her. Then of course everyone and their brother's uncle shows up to visit and she has to keep trying to hide the wolf. But, after getting rid of everyone she ends up telling Scarlet. She took the news well and they decided the wolf would be enough protection for granny out in the woods alone. So all three of them sat down and ate apple tarts and friend chicken =)

Deems the Wood Gatherer

There was an old wood gatherer named Deems. He was partially blind and he kept coming upon different people in the woods. Or so he thought. He tried to give each of them sound advice because he loved to help people. I thought this one was pretty cool because he runs into the wolf and the three pigs, the gingerbread man, and hansel, gretal and the witch.

Why Willy and His Brother Won't Ever Amount to Anything

This is the story of Isolda, she has a bunch of brothers and sisters and they all live with her parents in the apple orchard.

This story is just bizarre and not one of my favorites, but the brothers that seem dumb as stumps end up being The Brothers Grimm.

The Little Red Headache

One day a wolf is having a nice nap when someone steps on his tail. Of course it hurt and he jumps up to find a little girl and she screams so loud it gives him a headache. She runs away and leaves her basket, he tries to yell to her but it came out all wolfy and scared her more. So, being the nice wolf that he is, he takes the basket to the granny's house and tells her what happened but she screams and then the little girls shows up and there is more screaming. Eventually the wolf runs away thinking they are all crazy!

Little Red Riding Hood's Little Red Riding Hood

That's a long title. Anyway, there is this really bratty girl that is actually a fairy godmother and she is always complaining about everything! She hates her cloak but can only use magic once a day.

The fairy godmother was visiting the little baby, Ruby Marie and since she hated the cloak so much she gave it to the baby and accidentally put a spell on the cloak to make it smart instead of the child.

Years later, Ruby Marie's mom asks her to go see her granny because she was sick. The cloak was not happy at all because of germs and Ruby Marie wasn't either because she was a brat.

On the way there they run into a wolf and the cloak keeps trying to help her get away, almost strangling her. They finally get to the house where the wolf was hiding. The cloak kept trying to strangle her and then strangle the wolf. Ruby threw the cloak off and said she hated it basically and wished the fairy godmother never gave it to her. A woodman passing heard all of the yelling and the wolf jumped out the window before he got caught. Ruby told the woodsman he scared off her granny but granny was in the wardrobe. Ruby wouldn't believe it though and the cloak had enough, so it ran away too (well slithered away) It had many owners through the years but later on . . . it found is true owner =)