#247 of 1001 · April 4, 2021

This week will be my third exploration of multiple picture book retellings of the same fairy tale, and I’ve selected Little Red Riding Hood! We begin with a version by Beni Monstresor, who takes a playfully scary approach to the material: while the anthropomorphic wolf at first appears quite dapper in his smart double-breasted suit and bowler hat, he later reveals his bestial nature by swallowing Little Red Riding Hood head-first. A note for folklore enthusiasts: Montresor follows Charles Perrault’s variant of the tale from the 1697 collection Histoires ou Contes du Temps Passé, avec des Moralités (Stories or Tales of Times Past, with Morals), also known as Contes de ma Mère l’Oye (“Tales of Mother Goose”). He includes Perrault’s ending, in which the young girl is simply swallowed up by the wolf, and that is that. However, his final illustration contains a silhouette of the huntsman (a character included in the German variant recorded by the Brothers Grimm over a century after Perrault), suggesting that all may yet turn out right. The composition of Montresor’s cover image is clearly borrowed from Gustave Doré’s engraving of Little Red Riding Hood climbing into bed with the wolf, one of several illustrations the artist made for an 1867 edition of Perrault’s tales. #littleredridinghood #grandmother #wolf #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcover #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookillustrations #picturebookart #classicchildrensbooks #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks