I Am Not Little Red Riding Hood

K-Gr 2—Those hoping for a sassy fractured fairy tale will be confused by this picture book. After the first few pages, in which the red-scarf-clad protagonist brushes off any comparison with Little Red, the story takes a poetic and dreamlike turn. She does not meet a wolf in the woods, but a white bear, who takes her to where "the moon lies sleeping" to collect the best snow to fill her empty basket. All night, the girl and the bear dance, collect snow, and eat snowflakes; at dawn the bear returns the girl to her home with a once-again-empty basket, but with new wisdom: "The bear was right: I could look at the snow, I could play and dance in the snow, but I could not keep the snow." The full-spread color and line illustrations of the pair playing in the night reinforce the dreamy mood, and the winter hues make the cold tangible. As an individual story, this fable might be a bit quiet for the read-aloud crowd; it is better suited for a cozy one-on-one bedtime reading on a winter's eve.—Rebecca Dash Donsky, New York Public Library