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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