LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD AND THE DRAGON

A Chinese Little Red Riding Hood meets a dragon in the woods.

A gentle, bespectacled gray wolf would like to set the record straight about the old folktale “about a girl in a red cape.” The real story, the wolf recounts, is about a girl who lived in China in the shadow of the Great Wall. Accompanied by cartoon animation-style art, the tale mimics the Western version of the story, with Chinese cultural details incorporated throughout (for instance, bringing Nǎinai herbal soup and a rice cake) and a big bad dragon as her adversary. Nǎinai gets gobbled up, and Dragon jumps into bed wearing her nightgown and cap. “What large hands you have!” Little Red exclaims. “All the better to hold you with,” Dragon replies. And so on. However, once Little Red has also been gobbled up and no woodsman comes to the rescue, she takes matters into her own hands. Inside Dragon’s stomach, after reuniting with Nǎinai, Little Red finds various items with which to antagonize him, such as a Chinese yo-yo that bounces around and silk ribbons that tickle Dragon’s insides. In a delightful illustration showing the cross section of the creature’s long stomach, Little Red even deploys her kung fu moves. Finally, she splashes the pungent herbal soup about to make the dragon retch, and out comes everything in his stomach. Page compositions and backgrounds may be run-of-the-mill, but the colorful characters, including Dragon, are adorably expressive. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A fun addition to the fractured fairy-tale bookshelf.