Ninja Red Riding Hood

May 15, 2014
Schwartz and Santat deliver a powerful karate chop of a picture book to fracture the familiar "Little Red Riding Hood" story.Hot on the heels of their successful Three Ninja Pigs (2012), this tale sees the hungry wolf enrolling in karate class to add some new skills to his predatory ways. Told in verse that adopts the lilting rhythm of a limerick, the humorous text pairs with digital art that bears the mark of Santat's animation background. The lupine antihero trains and then goes into the woods, where he encounters Little Red Riding Hood. In a familiar turn, he distracts her on her journey to Grandma's house with a flower-picking errand-but when he races off to the cottage ahead of her, he finds that Grandma is gone. Lo and behold, when the girl arrives, she does not need a woodcutter to save her because she has trained at ninja school, too. Grandma shows up fresh from practicing tai chi just in time to see Red subdue the wolf and then extract a promise that he will become a vegetarian and take up yoga. An unfortunate mishmash of Eastern religions and traditions emerges from this tale, but the absurdity of the story's twists and turns helps to mitigate this gaffe.As silly a trip to grandma's house as there ever was. (Picture book. 4-7)

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June 1, 2014

K-Gr 3-This action-packed fractured fairy tale is sure to excite young readers. Wolf is tired of getting beaten by his prey, so he sneaks into a martial-arts school to enhance his fighting skills. Feeling confident in his newfound abilities, he is eager to return to the hunt. He happens upon Little Red Riding Hood and thinks that he can trick her into becoming his next meal. What he doesn't bargain for, however, is that she has gone to ninja school, too. A sparring match ensues. A surprise visit from a tai chi master, though, gives Red the upper hand and puts Wolf on a new path of enlightenment. "The wolf was a mess./He'd had way too much stress./'I guess I'll give yoga a try.'" Children will gravatate to the rhyming text and exciting illustrations, created by Sumi brush work on rice paper. Speech bubbles and dialogue further enhance the story. The characters' facial expressions and body language will have kids laughing as Red and Wolf each try to best the other. A fun read-aloud, but also great for independent reading, this story piggybacks on Schwartz's Three Ninja Pigs (Putnam, 2012), in which the three little pigs share their ninja skills with their friends.-Amy Shepherd, St. Anne's Episcopal School, Middleton, DE

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2014
Preschool-G Once upon a time a wolf tormented three little pigs, but the pigs went to ninja school, and it didn't work out so well for the wolf (The Three Ninja Pigs, 2012). So this time out, the wolf enrolls in ninja school himself (temporarily donning a David Carradine wig?)the better to overcome his next victim. The wolf encounters a little girl in a red hood on the way to deliver a pie to her grandmother, but when the wolf-in-grandma's-clothing brings out his ninja moves, Riding Hood has some martial arts of her own. The two are squarely matched, and it falls to Gran (fresh from tai chi) to settle the score. Once again, Schwartz' comic verse scans beautifully, tripping through the (bamboo) forest to grandma's house with vigor and attitude. Santat's artwork, digitally manipulated Sumi brushwork on rice paper, divides the action into diagonal panels, maximizing the roundhouse impact. While the closing endpapers show the wolf at apparent peace, fans will be hoping he reverts to his nefarious ways for another fractured outing. Pair this with N. D. Wilson's Ninja Boy Goes to School, reviewed on this page, for a ninja-themed story hour.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)