The Girl in Red [Hardcover]

A good story can change. InThe Girl in Red, acclaimed illustrator Roberto Innocenti offers a modern take on the centuries-old tale of an ailing grandmother, a wicked wolf, and a young girl in a red coat. Innocenti's brilliantly detailed illustrations present a city as a wilderness, while text by Aaron Frisch narrates the journey of a girl named Sophia through the twists and turns of a stormy day.Aaron Frisch is an editor and author whose picture books—published by Creative Editions—have received an IPPY Award Gold Medal, a Spur Award, and a finalist nomination for the Minnesota Book Awards.

Roberto Innocenti, a self-taught artist, has earned worldwide acclaim with such illustrated books asRose BlancheandThe Adventures of Pinocchio. In 2008, he received the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award.Hans Christian Andersen Medalist Innocenti (The House) reworks Little Red Riding Hood in a story narrated, improbably, by a doll-size figure of a grandmother surrounded by a group of children. Toys can be fun, the automaton tells them as she knits. But a good story is magic. In a series of spreads that cross the busyness of Where's Waldo? with the bleak commercial dystopia of Blade Runner, Sophia, clad in a red cloak, crosses trash- and graffiti-strewn streets on her way to her Nana's, dwarfed by buildings and jostled by crowds. Her predator isn't a wolf but a man with a brush cut and a black coat. Frisch (The Lonely Pine) describes him with a sneer: A smiling hunter. What big teeth he has. Dark and strong and perfect in his timing. The traditional tale has several endings, and Frisch offers alternatives as well-first a tragedy ( It is almost morning when a mother's phone rings ), then a triumph, as police officers capture the man in the black coat. Not a bedtime story, but an opening to hard questions about violence and safety-and about storytelling, too. Ages 8-up. (Nov.) - Publishers Weekly, Starred ReviewLittle Red trl#K