Red: The (Fairly) True Tale of Red Riding Hood

Liesl Shurtliff's Red: The (Fairly) True Tale of Red Riding Hood is a funny, prickly fairy-tale adventure for 10 year olds about a girl who has sworn off magic for good.

What happens

Red's granny is a witch, and a good one. She can grow strawberries with a wave of her hand. She also scares off pesky visitors by dressing up as a wolf and lying in her own bed. (Yes, that scene is in here, and it's played for laughs.)

Red's own magic is another story. At five she tried to grow roses for Granny's birthday and they shot out of her nose. Granny called them booger blossoms. Then came a drying spell that set the washing on fire, and a spell that gave a worried neighbour a wart.

After one mistake that was much worse, Red decided she would never do magic again.

So when Granny falls ill and the only thing that will help is her Curious Cure-All, Red is stuck. The recipe is carved into Granny's kitchen table. It needs a drop of pixie venom, a pair of wings plucked from a tree nymph and seven hairs from a wolf. Oh, and you're supposed to ask the wolf nicely.

Off she goes into The Woods in Granny's old red cloak, along a magic path that appears under her feet. She's up against angry pixies, burs that tangle her hair and, worst of all, Goldie, a chatty girl with golden curls who wants a love potion and simply won't go away. There's also a big black wolf who keeps asking her to come with him, and an ancient huntsman who can barely hit a rabbit.

Red tells the story herself and she's great company. She's grumpy, stubborn and very funny about it, the kind of girl who'd rather face a bear than put up with Goldie. Half the fun is spotting the other fairy tales hiding in the corners.

There's a real heart under the jokes. Red blames herself for an old accident, and Granny's illness brings talk of dying that Red doesn't want to hear. Worth knowing before you hand it over. Granny's fever gets worse over the opening chapters and she tells Red plainly that everybody dies. A child who's worried about a poorly grandparent might find those pages hard, although the love between Red and Granny is what carries the story.

What to read next

If your reader enjoys old stories told from a new angle, they'll probably love this. Red's world is the same one as in Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin, where the boy everyone laughs at has a friend called Red who's ready to face down his bullies with a shovel.