Little Red Riding Hood (Fay's Fairy Tales) - Softcover

Ages 7-9. Surely everyone must know that Wegman is the man who takes pictures of his weimaraners, often dressing them up in clothing of one sort or another. Lately, they've been wearing fairy- tale garb, for example, in Cinderella. Some people love the concept, others hate it, and only you know whether these books have a place in your library. However, no matter what you think of the pictures, there is also a story to deal with here, and that's where even the least pure of purists may have a quibble. With Little Red Riding Hood you usually get either the tame ending (Grandma's hiding in the closet, and the hunter saves Red Riding Hood) or the more traditional, grizzly ending (Little Red Riding Hood and Grandma get eaten, but the hunter slices the wolf open and the two jump out, unharmed). Here we get the Wegman version: the wolf looks at the hunter, gets dizzy, throws up, and vomits out Red Riding Hood and her grandmother, none the worse for wear. There are also a few problems with the pictures. Kids may question why the wolf is just an undressed dog (and may blanch at the dead raccoon at his feet in one shot), while adults will notice that the one two-page spread is the same shot with the negative reversed. An offering for those who don't mind their Red Riding Hood with eyes and teeth as big as Granny's Ilene Cooper

Arriving on the tails of Cinderella , the second of Fay's Fairy Tales continues to feature photographer Wegman's famously photogenic weimaraners, but, unlike the previous book, reflects a predominantly adult sensibility. Wegman experiments more here, trying different camera angles, shooting his dressed-up dogs outdoors as well as inside, and achieving a depth of field that recalls the tableaux of old Viewmaster toys. Campiness is the order of the day: for example, an obviously fake stag's head intrudes into one picture of a caped Red Riding Hood carrying goodies through the forest; " 'Look, a deer. It has antlers. It must be a stag. Hello, stag,' she whispered to herself so as not to startle it" reads the facing text. But the irony reaches its apogee when the wolf pretends to Red Riding Hood that it is her grandmother--the dog-as-wolf-as-grandmother is a virtual twin of the dog-as-grandmother, so that the "what big ears you have!" sequence becomes tongue-in-cheek. A few jolting images--of the "wolf" with bloody fangs presiding over a limp raccoon stole, or of it snapping ferociously at Red Riding Hood--may also deter the youngest readers even as their elders are entertained. All ages.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.