I love fractured fairy tales. This one is one of my favorites. In Ninja Red Riding Hood, Corey Rosen Schwartz’s wolf is tired of struggling for his dinner. He’s decided that enough is enough. Time to go to the dojo for some martial arts lessons. He trains and he trains until one day, in the woods, he runs into Little Red Riding Hood. Perfect. Did someone say, dinner?

Wolf takes a short cut to Grandma’s house.  Grandma is not there, so Wolf slips into her nightgown and into her bed just in time to greet Red Riding Hood. Red Riding Hood, or Red for short, is suspicious. Why are Grandma’s eyes so big, ears so long, biceps to big, and teeth so sharp? Wolf leaps out of bed but is shocked to learn that Red went to Ninja school, too. Yikes. Evenly matched, wolf is still hopeful that he’ll have his dinner when in comes Grandma. She has been to Ninja school, too; and, Grandma looks fierce in her gi. In the blink of an eye, Red gets a grip on Wolf and flips him.

Wolf tries to give up and leave, but Grandma drives a hard bargain. If he wants to leave, he has to give up Red meat. (get it?) Wolf is stressed by this whole situation. He swears to give up red meat and decides to take up yoga. 🙂

Schwartz’s rhyming is great. Dan Santat’s illustrations are colorful and bold. The characters expressions are priceless. What a fun book. Lots of cheers from my second graders when I read this to them!