What Really Happened to Little Red Riding Hood: THE WOLF'S STORY

The Wolf's Story

Written by Toby Forward

Illustrated by Izhar Cohen

Copyright 2005

25 pages

Fractured Fairy Tale

There are three sides to every story, as the old saying goes. Why should fairy tales be any different? While roaming through Books-A-Million I found one of my childhood favorite's, Little Red Riding Hood. I had always thought I knew the truth, but boy was I wrong. A gem was lying right beside the classic titled, The Wolf's Story: What Really Happened to Little Red Riding Hood. There are so many events which occurred that led the wolf to a predicament at his good friend, Grandma's House. The truth is everything was just a large misunderstanding...or was it? 

The illustrator Izhar Cohen, uses a variety of watercolors and pencils to make the images in this story really pop. His great use of perspective and light assist the authors plot by enhancing the wolf's point of view. 

•Example of Perspective/Light and Composition•

Another contribution the illustrator made to the story involved the element of composition. As the reader glides through the text on a page, he can rely on the images to give him the main idea of how Wolf sees the world. 

After analyzing the elements of this story, I would suggest that teachers incorporate this work with their students from ages 7 to 9. With that being said, The Wolf's Story would be most appropriate for the first and second grade classroom. This age group is becoming more capable of understanding different perspectives which could be manipulated into a lesson. Teachers should read both Little Red Riding Hood and The Wolf's Story to allow the children to compare and contrast the different plots. By doing so, the students will have a better understanding of the importance of perspectives. The teacher could also lead the class in a group discussion on which story they think is true. The class could be divided into two separate teams where the students will work together to find supporting details from each book in an attempt to persuade their classmates to join Team Wolf or Team Red.