Little Red Riding Hood

Trina Schart Hyman manages to capture an old fashioned, sumptuous quality in her detailed illustrations without losing any lightness of touch. The marriage of text to illustration and the beautiful use of borders draw the reader along in a complete pageant of sensations. The old Grimm story retains its build-up of suspense with a strong crispness of language that increases the immediacy and yet is still accessible to newly independent readers. One of my children said, 'This book feels . . . good' going on to sniff the pages appreciatively and I knew just what she meant!