The Girl in Red is a mature take on the classic fairy tale of "Little Red Riding Hood". Sophia lives in the "forest". The forest has "very few trunks and leaves". Instead it is mostly comprised of concrete and bricks. Sophia's mother tells Sophia to visit her grandmother on the other side of the city. Along the way she meets shady people who try to trick her from visiting her grandmother. A hunter drives Sophia away claiming that he know a shortcut but in reality is just delaying her arrival so that his accomplice can murder her grandmother. However the narrator says that stories do not have to have only one ending, and changes it so that the hunter and his gang get arrested. Sophia ends up being reunited with her grandmother. There were instances of metaphors at the beginning of the story by comparing the city to the forest of the original story. I thought that was creative however the reason why I have it such an average review is because it is simply not for children. Perhaps it could be more applicable towards higher grade levels but the unstructured plot, obscure interpretations, and the overall nature of the rough inner city life is not appropriate for young children. ( )

"The Girl in Red" is an interesting twist on the classic Red Riding Hood story. It still focuses on a girl in red, Sophia, and her journey to her grandmother's house across the forest, in this case a city similar to New York. Sophia always keeps her mother's words in mind, but does get picked up by a "wolf," in this case a man on a motorcycle who may or may not have murdered Sophia and her grandmother in the end. This book is a valiant effort to modernize a beloved tale, but it is told in a rather odd fashion. It lacks emotion, and it becomes an extremely dark story. I would probably never use it in a classroom, as the realistic aspects of the story would make the outcome even more terrifying for children. The only possible use in a classroom I could think of for this book would be to use the illustrations to juxtapose the original story and a modern rendition.
Media: gouache or acrylics ( )

12 ans ( )

I love Innocenti's illustrations. I love this interpretation of the story because I think it gives modern readers a bit of the discomfort that Grimm's storyteller's intended with Little Red Riding Hood. I think this adaptation steps back a bit from the ending it could have had and that's not satisfying. Would I put this version in an elementary library? Absolutely not. But if you want to start a discussion with mature high school students and adults about how fairy tales were originally used, try this to prompt the discussion and compare it to something more Disney-esque. ( )

"La niña de rojo" es una versión moderna del cuento clásico de Caperucita Roja. El relato de Aaron Frisch, que narra el accidentado viaje de Sofía en un día de tormenta, recoge -con un estilo sobrio- los principales argumentos narrativos: la abuela enferma, el bosque oscuro, el lobo malvado y la niña de abrigo rojo. Las ilustraciones de Roberto Innocenti, precisas hasta el más mínimo detalle, muestran la gran ciudad como un territorio caótico, desigual, peligroso. Y en el corazón de ese laberinto de calles y edificios se encuentra la selva, un lugar multiétnico repleto de color y vida, la máxima expresión de la sociedad del consumo, la comunicación y la tecnología; con todos sus defectos, de los que se plantea una crítica contundente. Esta adaptación también destaca por el diseño fragmentado de las páginas, con bloques de texto separados de las imágenes, a modo de cómic. Muchas generaciones de niños y niñas han crecido con este cuento eterno, con un lobo feroz que ahora viaja en motocicleta, y con un final que -en el caso de "La niña de rojo"- tanto puede ser trágico, como feliz. Porque sea antaño o en la actualidad, los cuentos siempre son mágicos.