Re-Writing Little Red: I Am So Clever by Mario Ramos

It's a sunny day in the forest. A hungry wolf is lurking behind a tree, feeling a bit peckish, when he spots a petite child dressed all in red, tripping along with a basket.

"Hello, my dear! How fine you look!"

"Thank you for the compliment, Mr. Wolf!" she replied cheerfully.

Mr. Wolf is already salivating and formulating his dining plans for the day. He only needs to delay Little Red Riding Hood briefly....

"I am so clever! I'll be having a feast today.

Grandmother for the main course, and this little raspberry for dessert!" he gloated to himself.

But Little Red fails to fall for his faux warning about ravenous sharks in the woods.

"Oh, come on! Everyone knows there are no sharks in the woods."

But Little Red seems persuaded that her Granny would love it if she picked a bouquet of posies for her, so leaving her choosing some blooms, Mr. Wolf streaks through the trees to Granny's cottage, prepared to gobble her down without a personal introduction. But Granny is not in residence, so Mr. Wolf invites himself in. The first thing he sees is Granny's ruffled pink nightgown spread out on her bed, and in glee Mr. Wolf makes a quick change in his meal plans.

"Aha! An even better idea! The little cherry for the first course...

... the grandmother for dessert!"

All Mr. Wolf has to do is squeeze into Granny's gown and hop in bed to ambush the little appetizer. But first, the wolf, encased like a sausage in the pink nightie, decides to hustle outside to conceal his paw prints on the path.

It's meal time and the perfect crime--a two-for-one special!

But outside there's a virtual parade of passersby going down the path, and Mr. Wolf has no choice but to impersonate Granny for the hunter who's dropped his glasses, three little pigs playing chase, seven dwarfs hi-ho-ing their way down the path for a summer swim, and the gallant Marquis Montresor, who reigns in his stallion to ask directions to the castle where he plans to wake a sleeping princess. At last Mr. Wolf spots Little Red approaching with a fistful of daisies. Ah-ha! Time for a bite of brunch!

But, hoist by his own petard, Mr. Wolf's feet gets tangled in his ruffled disguise and he falls flat as he lunges for Little Red. THUD!

"I've bwoken all my teeff! And I'm twapped in diff terrible dweff!"

It looks like Mr. Wolf will NOT be snacking on the catch of the day after all, in Mario Ramos' parody of Little Red Riding Hood, his just published I Am So Clever (Gecko Press, 2019). Artist Ramos' perky protagonist gets the best of the would-be wolfish predator (who may be begging some pureed porridge for dinner from the Three Bears) in a clever comic comeuppance in this funny fractured folk tale of just desserts. Says Booklist's starred review, "a delightful and fresh retelling, a worthy addition to the fractured fairy tale canon."