Category: Little Red Riding Hood

Story Wishlist: Little Red Riding Hood

Published on by Christine9 Comments

For our second Story Wishlist of the month, we return to September 2019’s featured fairy tale! A tale that is well-known but is in great need of more retellings.

Stay on the path, beware the wolf, and never underestimate the huntsman. Today’s SWL is all about…

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD

Genres

Christine

EPIC FANTASY – Because I am simply not aware of a RRH retelling that has a very big grand scale to it. And, really, it offers all sorts of delicious ideas. Big, creepy forest and wolfish monster inside? An epic grandma fighter? The mysterious huntsman who has no fear of taking down a wolf? So much to play with! I’ve always loved this fairy tale but have been sad at the retelling options that are available. I definitely want some more big fantasy RRH retellings!

CIRCUS FANTASY – Do I list this one like every time? Maaaybe. But but but circus fantasy is so FUN and there’s something about fairy tales that lend themselves so perfectly to a circus setting. I could totally see Red and her wolf having an epic act in a circus, or perhaps the wolf is the circus master himself or…I don’t know. Just CIRCUS FANTASY.

SPACE OPERA – It’s one thing not to go in the woods alone, but what if the entire galaxy is being haunted by some sort of horrifying wolf space creature, hmmm???

MURDER MYSTERY – I could definitely see this playing well to a whodunnit. Perhaps grandma really is killed, and her granddaughter has to find out who the “wolf” who did it is. I could see it in a classic noir style too. That’d be so much fun!

MAFIA – You cannot tell me the “wolf” wouldn’t be the coolest setup for a mob boss.

DARK ACADEMIA – I just feel like the nature of this tale could work really, really well for this genre.

* * * * * *

Hayden

-I always throw out scifi for this question, but except in the case of the Lunar Chronicles, I don’t know that I’ve seen a lot of those for this one? Red Riding Hood is one of the more popular stories to retell, so I feel like we’ve got more genre representation for this one than a lot of others.

-I recently watched all of Grimm, and while I have some mixed feelings on the execution of the show, I LOVE the premise. The first episode is a spin on Red Riding Hood, and I’d love anovel that’s more of a straight-up retelling of the story, set in a modern-day urban or small town setting!

-And I LOVE Christine’s idea of a murder mystery/mafia take! Now I’ve got ideas…

Authors

Christine

NEIL GAIMAN – I would especially love to see him do it in the style of one of his creepy middle-grade stories, because I think that would just be fantastic.

EMILY WINFIELD MARTIN – Her middle-grade book, Snow and Rose, had a light haunting feel to it that would work so, so well for a Riding Hood story. I’d LOVE to see her do another book like that for RRH.

E.K. JONHSTON – I just recently read A Thousand Nights by her and it was such a thoughtful, beautiful retelling of Scheherazade. I think RRH would work really well in her style.

SARAH PENNINGTON – I’d love to see her retell this one in much the same style as Blood in the Snow, which was such a lovely read!

* * * * * *

Hayden

– ok but Neil Gaiman WOULD be good at this one! His books are hit-and-miss with me, but I love The Graveyard Book, so if he did something like that for Red Riding Hood, I think that would be really cool.

Pre-Existing Story Worlds

Christine

ONCE UPON A TWIST TALES by Kirsten Fichter – I could see this fairy tale working super well in this non-magical, slightly steampunk world! After all, in the last story we got a bear. Now we need a wolf!

BEAST OF THE NIGHT WORLD by E.E. RAWLS – I can’t remember if this world had a specific name, but this book was a Beauty and the Beast retelling that was equal parts fun and eerie AND the world was inspired by Austria! I could absolutely see a RRH retelling working super well in this world and Rawl’s storytelling style.

DARK IS THE NIGHT WORLD by Mirriam Neal – Because it’s urban fantasy with werewolves (not to mention the best snarky bois and banter and plot twists and so. much. goodness.) and just. YES. I need a RRH retelling in this series.

* * * * * *

Hayden

– I really want more Dark is the Night stories from Mirriam Neal, and Christine’s suggestion is PERFECT. Especially because it would fit right in with my wish for a modern-day small town retelling…

Movies/TV

Christine

I’m honestly surprised Disney has never really done anything with this one. I think a fun twist on the fairy tale like they did with Tangled would be a blast!

I also think a Studio Ghibli version would be really interesting, as they’re really good at turning creepy tales into something enthralling and beautiful and eerie all at once. RRH just feels like one of their tales.

* * * * * *

Hayden

Going off of the mystery idea, I think a film noir style adaptation would be amazing. And if that style was combined with an urban fantasy twist, that would be even cooler, too.

Are you planning to retell this tale?

Christine

Though I’ve long been very fond of this fairy tale, I’ve never been struck with a particular idea that excites me enough to try writing it. It’s one I may very well try my hand at one day, but for now I’m quite content reading other people’s re-imaginings of it.

* * * * * *

Hayden

So I actually DO have an idea for a retelling of this one that was meant to be a part of my historical fairy tales series, but I’ve been putting it off because my idea for it takes place in a culture not my own, and I’d have to do a ton of research. But I still really love my idea, so who knows? It might actually see the light of day sometime.

And there are our thoughts! How would YOU like to see the infamous Little Red and the Wolf re-imagined?

Wolves and Woodcutters – Red Riding Hood Recap

Published on by Christine3 Comments
PC: ractapopulous @ pixabay

It’s been a beautiful month full of wolves and red hoods and the earthy scent of the woods. Autumn is in full swing, and depending on where you live, you may already have had a touch of snow. I’m in a mountain state and we got snow this morning. It didn’t stick here in town, but the mountains are blanketed with it, contrasting beautifully with the red of the maples.

It seemed a fitting conclusion to Red Riding Hood month.

Behind the Scenes

Kirsten Davis joined the team again this month, posting one of our book reviews. She’ll be with our team for the near future.

A huge part of the planning process for FTC is a lot of emails, which naturally grow more numerous with the more people we have on the team. It’s one of the best parts of this website, our inboxes filling up every month with:

  • Funny emails.
  • Emails full of yelling about fairy tales, including myself and Christine ranting about a retelling of next month’s fairy tale—a retelling which woefully disappointed both of us.
  • WAIT, WHAT ARE WE DOING AGAIN? emails.
  • ‘Girls, I have a new idea’ emails
  • Emails about NaNoWriMo. (Coming fast now…)
  • And ‘why don’t we have any movies of this tale’ emails. (We could make Disney even more money if they’d listen to us, just sayin’. AND make fairy-tale fans pretty happy.)

Writing Prompts

This month’s prompt was snarky and a twist on the most iconic scene in the fairy tale. You can find it here. The month may be over, but you can still write a scene and add it to the comments.

While you’re there, check out the the other scenes written for the prompt! FTC’s Christine again used the prompt to write a scene with her Faylinn couple.

If you want to see all the FTC + IWG fairy tale prompts so far and even save them in a handy place to go back to later, check out this Pinterest board.

And for a variety of fairy-tale plot sparks + prompts, hop over to this page.

Around the Web

Instagram

If you haven’t seen any of the posts from our bookstagram challenge this month, I recommend checking out the challenge tag and its companion writer’s tag. There were some great books spotlighted and fantastic people who took part (+ delicious book pictures).

Next…

Christine will be back tomorrow with our next fairy tale and a preview of events. We’re all eagerly looking forward to the new tale…dun, dun, DUUNNN.

What was your favorite part of Red Riding Hood month?

Cloaked Book Review

Published on by Christine9 Comments

Synopsis

Little Red Riding Hood… re-imagined.

Mary Rose feels uneasy around Mr. Linden from the moment she meets him on the stagecoach ride to her grandmother’s ranch in Wyoming Territory. But he works for her grandmother, so that means he’s trustworthy, doesn’t it? Everyone else seems to view him as honest and respectable, and Mary Rose wonders if she’s overreacting.

She tries to ignore her suspicions until one night, she discovers his real reason for being at the ranch. Now, if she’s going to save her grandmother—and herself—she’s going to need to run faster than she’s ever run before.

Review

After reading and really enjoying Rachel’s 12 Dancing Princesses retelling, Dancing and Doughnuts, I knew I wanted to read the rest of her fairytale retellings. Cloaked is the only other in her Once Upon a Western series, other than a couple of short stories. I love that she’s focusing on fairytales that aren’t your everyday retellings. I mean, one of her short stories is a retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. When was the last time you read a retelling of that? And Rachel’s doing it all completely without magic — another thing that majorly excites me.

I’ve found that Little Red Riding Hood isn’t the most popular fairytale to retell nowadays, but interest in it is definitely growing. However, many of the authors retelling it have gone the magic route, creating werewolves and curses and otherworldly creepiness. Rachel’s Cloaked is a breath of fresh air in the midst of all those retellings.

Mary Rose (and yes, it’s Mary Rose, not just Mary) is off to visit her grandmother. She’s excited about the opportunity to get out of the big city and meet a real, live Indian (and maybe a real Western criminal), but she’s also nervous since there are many years of tension between her grandmother and her parents. She’s determined, however, to enjoy her visit and learn to ride — no matter how uncomfortable a certain employee of her grandmother’s makes her feel.

Right off the bat, we’re introduced to most of the main characters: Little Red Riding Hood, the woodcutter, and the big, bad wolf. Even though the story starts off as a straightforward retelling, Rachel soon takes us on an adventure that incorporates many of the original fairytale elements while twisting the plot in unexpected ways.

Hauer was my favorite character. Although I believe he was old enough to be Mary Rose’s grandfather, he’s more of that cool uncle that everyone wants to have. You know, the kind that has epic stories to tell you and cool knickknacks to let you touch. His protective streak and sense of humor were spot-on.

I enjoyed following Mary Rose’s adventures. I was very worried that she’d end up being one of the two sterotypical city girls in the big West: 1) the rebellious type who doesn’t listen to anyone and runs off whenever they please, or 2) the stingy type that refuses to have any fun or get dirty at all. However, she was neither. Her city upbringing was enough that kept her sensible, but she was adventurous enough to try new things, even when she thought they might be hard. She was curious and almost naive at times — both key characteristics for Little Red in my opinion.

This was definitely a western novella. I know a lot of people don’t want to venture into that genre, but let me beg you to give this book a chance. This is a sweet story of a young girl experiencing new things and working to create a loving relationship with her grandmother. One of the things that I loved about this book was the western inspiration.

Side rant here: Did you ever notice that this fairytale’s iconic cloak is a red RIDING hood? I never really thought about it until I read this book. Not too many Little Reds nowadays are riding. They just prance around in the woods wearing their bright red cloaks and hoods. But Mary Rose does riding. A lot of riding. Not necessarily always in her red hood, but riding nonetheless. I appreciated that fact more than you realize. A Little Red who rides. Imagine that.

But that does lead into a small complaint about the book: there is an awful lot about horses in here. There are several pages dedicated to teaching Mary Rose how to ride, and there’s enough information there to probably teach every reader to ride as well — and all without ever getting near a horse. With all that emphasis and instruction, I was hoping for a good horse chase or race somewhere in the climax of the book, but it doesn’t happen.

Original Fairytale Elements

I’ve already spoiled most of this section by mentioning the fairytale elements in the review above. But I was pretty impressed with how Rachel incorporated almost all of the fairytale elements into the plot. I’m always especially interested in Little Red retellings how the author looks at the red hood. The red hood in this book, I thought, was done very sweetly, since Mary Rose’s grandmother is the one originally wearing a red hood. My other thoughts on the riding hood are obviously penned above.

We don’t have the whole iconic “big ears/eyes/teeth” conversation, but I felt that glimpses of that showed up throughout the book. The climax at the end was very well done, and — at the risk of spoilers — I thought it paralleled the climax of the original fairytale excellently.

Content Caution

Some mild peril and action. A few characters receive injuries (such as one getting bashed in the face with a lamp), but everything is clean and not too graphic. The climax does involve the woodcutter’s axe from the original fairytale, but everything again is not terribly graphic.

Light romance. One character makes some romantic advances on Mary Rose while she’s at the ranch, but nothing goes very far (other than one forced kiss). She’s disgusted with the attempts, but often wonders if she’s reading too much into some of the things he says and does. I realize that this type of romantic advances can suggest something dirty, but I thought the author handled it very well and was able to keep things pretty clean.

Conclusion

If you’re into western novels, or fairytale retellings, or clever Little Red twists, or sweet and clean family stories, then this is a book you need to read. It was just that perfect read that you want when you’ve got a lazy afternoon ahead of you and a fuzzy blanket to curl up under.

Little Red Riding Hood Animated Review

Published on by Christine1 Comment

PETYA AND LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD

Petya and Little Red Riding Hood is a 1958 USSR animated film directed by Boris Stephanstev and Evgeny Raykovsky.

The short film begins with Petya eyeing a poster for a Little Red Riding Hood cartoon in the theatre but the tickets are all sold out.  He sneaks into the theatre and ends up stumbling into the film itself by entering the back of the movie screen.

The narrator, personified by a speaker, is shocked to find a boy in the film. He tells the boy to hide so he can continue his story and then introduces Little Red Riding Hood, a tiny little blond girl with a red cap on her golden head. A giant wolf meets her on her path and the innocent Red Riding Hood chatters about going to meet her grandmother.

From behind a bush, Petya watches in horror as Red tells the wolf where her grandmother lives. As soon as the wolf leaves, Petya pursues Red. She immediately starts to divulge her plans for the day to him before he chides her for sending the wolf to eat her grandmother. She’s reluctant to believe him at first, but he convinces her to go find some hunters while he goes after the wolf to save the grandmother.

The narrator is angry that the boy keeps interrupting the story and leaves the theatre. Meanwhile, Petya catches up with the wolf. The wolf threatens to eat him. Petya warns him that hunters are following him and that he should take another path to grandmother’s house.

Petya uses this time to go to grandmother’s himself. He knocks on the door and tells grandmother, “It’s me, Little Red Riding Hood”. He then warns the grandma the wolf is coming after her. Grumpy grandma doesn’t believe him at first until she sees the wolf through her window. She hides in the closet and Petya dresses up a pot with granny’s hat and puts it in her bed before escaping.

The wolf finally arrives at grandmother’s and thinking the pot with the cap is granny, swallows it whole. Petya then dresses up as Red Riding Hood and enters the house again. Petya tries to stall longer hoping the hunters will show up any moment.

“Wait, why do you not ask why I have such big ears?” the wolf asks.

“Why ask? Ears are ears,” Petya says.

The wolf realizes he’s been tricked and tries to attack Petya. He chases the boy around the house trying to eat him. Finally, the hunters show up and capture the wolf carting him away on a pole.

Red thanks Petya for saving her beloved grandmother and Petya walks out of the film to go home for dinner.

Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever watched a Russian cartoon before but this was a fun and entertaining first! The animation style feels very 50s, very colorful and bright with cute looking characters.

The story is a fun twist on the original as Petya knows the story and rushes to save the day. My favorite part is Little Red Riding Hood just waltzing up to the wolf and blabbing about her grandmother without even being asked any questions. Like the girl has no reservations whatsoever and the look of disgust and terror on Petya’s face is hilarious while he overhears her.

There’s an interesting moment of the film where Petya explains to Red that he’s an honest pioneer. She wonders if this is like knighthood but Petya disdains the term, declaring pioneers much different. I had to research the term pioneers (who else thought of people in covered wagons on the prairie lol?) – it’s actually an organization for adolescents, common in communist governments (the US had one in the 1920s/30s for a communist party). Petya wears the typical red necktie of the pioneer movement.

If you like classic cartoons and fairytale retellings, this is an entertaining little film!

HAPPILY EVER AFTER: LITTLE RED HAPPY COAT

Happily Ever After is an American animated series that ran for five years in the late 1990s. The fairy-tale anthology series aired on HBO with 39 episodes showcasing different fairytales in different settings than their original stories.

This episode gives us a fresh twist on the story by introducing us to Little Red Happy Coat, an inquisitive seven-year-old girl who lives with her parents and older sister Mei Li.

Red volunteers to bring a basket to Po Po (grandmother) since she’s sick and her mom is busy. Mom is reluctant but finally agrees, telling Red to go straight there and stay on the path.

In the forest, a starved wolf tries to hunt a bird but can’t capture it. He continues to seek food while Red takes quite a few detours on her path, stopping to talk to her future brother-in-law and a neighboring herbalist, Mr. Song.

Eventually the wolf hears Red in the forest and meets her on the path. He starts chatting with her and after hearing about her sick grandmother, the wolf convinces Red to go to a tea shop in the forest to bring her tea. Red worries about her mom’s specific directions but the wolf points out to Red, she’s old enough to make her own decisions. Uhhh at seven?

A (terrible) musical scene interrupts with Red singing about her grandmother while the wolf secretly sings of his evil intentions in the background.

While Red finds the tea shop and acquires tea, the wolf rushes to Po Po’s house and gobbles her up. Realizing it’s getting late, Red hurries to Po Po’s house. Immediately she senses someone is wrong with the front door ajar.

Po Po invites her in and Red notes that she sounds very strange. And looks strange too. The wolf pounces at Red but she tosses a bouquet of flowers at him and tries to escape. Unfortunately, she isn’t fast enough and the wolf gobbles her up as well.

Mr. Song, the herbalist, shows up to visit Po Po. Sensing something is wrong, he feeds the wolf an herbal remedy that has him regurgitate Red and Po Po. Red apologizes for not following the path and goes on to be an inquisitive yet wiser child. And the wolf never harms anyone again.

Airing in 1995, this retelling was the second episode of Happily Ever After. There were definitely parts that I enjoyed, mainly the retelling set in Ancient China. The change of scenery is always fun and adds an entertaining twist to the story.

I don’t think I’ve seen a Red Riding Hood so young before and couldn’t help but laugh every time she stated how grown-up she was at seven years old. Uhmmm, right kid. You’re clearly all knowing at this age.

The wolf was my least favorite part of the story – honestly, he was just so annoying haha. I don’t know what it was about him that rubbed me so wrong, maybe it was just the annoying way he talked, constantly whining and muttering. I mean I know the wolf isn’t supposed to be likeable but I think I would’ve preferred them to take his character up a notch and go for something flamboyant and cartoony fun.

Overall this was a cute and easy breezy retelling of the original story.

Author Interview – Rachel Kovaciny

Published on by Christine12 Comments

Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Central, Rachel! It’s an honor to have you here to talk about your Red Riding Hood retelling: Cloaked.

Thank you for having me!  I’ve really been enjoying FTC these past six months.  I’m honored you asked to chat with me today!

When did you first read or hear Red Riding Hood, and what drew you to retell it?

The earliest version I can remember having read out loud to me was actually a humorous short story about a grandpa telling the story to his granddaughter all wrong because she’s pestering him while he’s trying to read the paper.  It all ends with him giving her money to go buy chewing gum—it’s called “Little Green Riding Hood” by Gianni Rodari, if you want to try to find it yourself.  It’s very silly.

I really like a lot of the themes in the original story, those of being cautious around strangers, trusting your instincts, and seeking help when you need it.  I started reading very old, early versions of the story, some of which were plenty disturbing, and I liked the central thread of young-girl-stands-up-for-herself-and-those-she-loves that ran through so many of those.  So I decided to have a metaphorical wolf, a literal woodcutter, and the rest kind of took care of itself.

What was your favorite element of the original tale, the thing you knew you just HAD to include in your retelling?

The woodcutter.  In most versions of the story, he’s a stranger who drops everything to run to save someone who needs help.  I love characters who will do that.  In my book, he’s not a total stranger by the time he’s summoned for help, but that doesn’t really make a difference.

Who was your favorite character in your retelling?

My woodcutter, Hauer.  Oh my goodness, I love that man.  Probably more than any other character I’ve ever created.  He’s never quite where he ought to be when you need him, though—very pesky habit of his.  But he always comes through in the end.

Was there a character with whom you identified the most?

I definitely identified with my protagonist, Mary Rose O’Brien.  She’s like a younger, more extroverted version of me!  Curious about everything, a voracious reader, impatient with adults who treat her like she’s a simpleton, and anxious to please.  That was me at sixteen, so very much so.

Is there anything from your life that you incorporated into this story: people, places, experiences, circumstances?

Not directly, no.  My love of classic literature does creep in, with references to Shakespeare and Jane Austen.  And my general knowledge of what it’s like to learn to ride a horse came in very handy.

Favorite fairy tale (relation)ship in general?

In general, probably Cinderella and her prince.  As long as the prince has a personality and isn’t just some random handsome dude (glaring at you, animated Disney version).  I also love the soldier in “The Twelve Dancing Princesses” who chooses the smartest princess for a wife because he values her intelligence.

If this book was a movie or TV series, who would you pick to play (or voice, if animated) the main characters?

Felicity Jones for Mary Rose O’Brian, Dame Judi Dench for her grandmother Jubilee, Armie Hammer for Deputy Small, and Michael Fassbender for Mr. Linden.  Unfortunately, my perfect casting choice for Hauer, Alan Ladd, passed away before I was ever born.  I suppose maybe Tom Hanks?

Favorite and least favorite parts of this story to write?

Least favorite was the big fight scene at the end.  I HATE writing action scenes.  Yes, that’s perfectly ridiculous of me, since I write westerns, but it’s true.  They take so long to describe and explain.  It’s not that I’m bad at them, it’s just that they’re so much less fun to write than dialog.

Favorite was probably the first meeting between Mary Rose and Deputy Small because I got to write a meet-cute and those are fun.  Full of dialog, you know. 🙂

What music did you listen to while writing this story, its soundtrack, so to speak? Do the main characters have theme songs? If you don’t write to music, what music do you think best represents this story?

I very much write to music!  Mainly movie soundtracks, but sometimes Bobby Darin or random other music that seems to fit the story.  For Cloaked, I listened to Victor Young’s score for Shane and Jerome Moross’s score for The Big Country the most.  There’s a lively dance scene, and I listened to a lot of Aaron Copland’s Rodeo for that, especially “Four Dance Episodes.”  But it was a track from Patrick Doyle’s score for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, “The Death of Cedric,” that I put on repeat while writing the climactic fight.

I put a YouTube playlist together for Cloaked back when it was released in 2017, which you can still access here:

What can you tell us about any other fairy-tale retellings you’re hoping to write in the future?

Well, I released a “Twelve Dancing Princesses” retelling called Dancing and Doughnuts in 2018, and right now I’m revising a “Snow White” retelling that’s set to release in February of 2020 if all goes well.  It all begins when seven white orphans get taken in by a wagon train of African-Americans heading to Kansas to start new lives for themselves. 

After I finish that one, I’m planning to tackle “Beauty and the Beast” next, then “Cinderella,” and then “The Steadfast Tin Soldier.”  All these books are part of my Once Upon a Western anthology series, which means they take place in a shared universe, and characters from one book might pop up in another, but they are all self-contained stories that don’t need to be read in any particular order.

I also have two free short stories available as e-books for Nook, Kindle, and Kobo—one is a Sheherazade-esque sequel to my Sleeping Beauty story “The Man on the Buckskin Horse” (available in the Five Magic Spindles anthology from Rooglewood Press), and one is a “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” retelling that’s a sequel to Cloaked!

Rachel Kovaciny was homeschooled K-12, graduated from Bethany Lutheran College with a BA in Liberal Arts, and promptly married her college sweetheart. She now lives in Virginia with her husband and their three homeschooled children. Rachel writes a monthly history column for the newspaper Prairie Times and bi-monthly articles for the online magazine Femnista.  Her 2017 book, Cloaked, was a finalist for the Peacemaker Award for Best YA/Children’s Western Fiction, and her follow-up, Dancing and Doughnuts, is now available in paperback and e-book.

To learn more about her books and upcoming releases, sign up for her newsletter:

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If you’re a fan of Tolkien, Rachel’s currently running a Lord of the Rings/Hobbit blog party.

You can find Cloaked here:

Thank you for being here today, Rachel!

Thank you for interviewing me!  It’s been a genuine pleasure.