Monday, April 23, 2012

Cloaked in Red/Vivian Vande Velde

Cloaked in Red by Vivian Vande Velde; short stories, young adult, fairy tale retellings; 127 pages

I picked this up because I remember loving Vande Velde's work when I was in middle school, and I loved the concept of this book:  retellings of Little Red Riding Hood.  The execution, however, wasn't quite what I was expecting.

These stories (eight in all) are good, but aimed at a younger audience than I was expecting, especially given subtext of the original Red Reding Hood story.  To be fair, I read Vande Velde as a middle schooler, so I shouldn't be surprised that her current work is still aimed at middle schoolers, but I remember her other books as being a little darker and a little more serious (if you've never read Dragon's Bait, I highly recommend it!).  Part of that expectation might come from where her books were shelved at my childhood library--in the adult section, with Tolkien and Beagle and L'Engle.  Of course, that was in the ancient times, before there was really a YA section, but it may have lead to me expect some more mature content this time around (when you're 11, everything out of the adult section seems mature!). 

While I enjoyed these stories, they were all very tongue-in-cheek, and at times seemed like they might be trying just a little too hard.  Still this was a quick, light, and fun read.  I'd recommend this to people who love fairy tale retellings, especially ones with a good dose of humor thrown in.

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