Cloaked in Red
Written by Vivian Vande Velde
Narrated by Laural Merlington
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
So you think you know the story of Little Red Riding Hood, the girl with the unfortunate name and the inability to tell the difference between her grandmother and a member of a different species? Well, then, try your hand at answering these questions: Which character (not including Little Red herself) is the most fashion challenged? Who (not including the wolf) is the scariest? Who (not including Granny) is the most easily scared? Who is the strangest (notice we’re not “not including” anyone, because they’re all a little off.)? Who (no fair saying “the author”) has stuffing for brains? Master storyteller Vivian Vande Velde crafts eight new stories involving one of the world’s most beloved (and mixed-up) characters in literature. You may never look at fairy tales in quite the same way again.
Vivian Vande Velde
Vivian Vande Velde has written many books for teen and middle grade readers, including Heir Apparent, User Unfriendly, All Hallow's Eve: 13 Stories, Three Good Deeds, Now You See It ..., and the Edgar Award–winning Never Trust a Dead Man. She lives in Rochester, New York. Visit her website at www.vivianvandevelde.com.
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Reviews for Cloaked in Red
88 ratings18 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This collection was a lot of fun. Vivian Vande Velde retells the story of "Little Red Riding Hood" eight different times in eight different ways. These stories range from the amusing to the even more amusing.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Clever and amusing! Each story is has its own charm, and they work beautifully together as a collection.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I originally chose this book because I really enjoyed this authors short story in the book Gothic! and really enjoyed her story. I knew that this was a reimagining of the little red riding hood story but i did not know it was just a collection of short stories.
I am surprised at all of the negative reviews for this book. The authors note at the beginning was pretty funny. VVV was pretty much poking fun at herself and the classic story, but some people took that seriously. If you read it knowing that this was her being light hearted and funny it really works, if you think she is being serious in the note then you will hate it.
each short story took a different element from the original and created its own story. in one of the tales you have a grandmother who saved a wolf, in another a woman makes a doll in a red hood, a story of two boys who become important in the fairytale world, and a riding hood that has a mind of its own.
These stories had their own touch of magic and while not all of them were 100% perfect they were really fun. There were a few times in the book that I could not help but smile because of the little special things she added such as the smart red cloak eventually finding its way to a man and it helping him leap tall buildings in a single bound. I mean I never thought I would read about a super hero like superman in a book about little red riding hood.
I really think it would be a fun book to read to a younger audience or better yet have them read it to you. Don't let the average rating deter you, go in knowing that the book is just about having fun with a classic tale and you will enjoy it. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/58 short stories that are variations of Little Red Riding Hood. Imaginative and thought provoking. I liked the fresh look of the story and how the villain is not always the wolf.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I love the way Vivian Vande Velde spins a tale. I've read her Companions of the Night twice and have been wanting to read more of her works. now that I'm on a fairytale retelling kick, I decided to read this collection of short stories around the Little Red Riding Hood tale.
The Author's Note breaks down all the things wrong with the original tales and then we are reintroduced to the tale from different points - mostly Red, the wood cutter, granny and the wolf with one from the cloak.
All are both imaginative and hilarious and some other well known characters make an appearance.
A really quick read for anyone who wants a little more fairytale in their lives. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I picked up this book as part of the Fairy Tales Retold Challenge I participated in this year. It was okay. This is a series of eight stories that are rewrites of Little Red Riding Hood. The stories are fairly short and simple. A couple of them were very creative and I enjoyed them. I actually enjoyed the humorous foreword more than the majority of the book.The writing style is very simple and straightforward; there isn't a lot of description or poetry here. The stories aren't really edgy or anything. You see a list of the stories included below along with a quick synopsis. My favorites were Little Red Riding Hood’s Family, Deems the Wood Gatherer, and Little Red Riding Hood’s Little Red Riding HoodOverall this was an okay book. It’s a quick read but definitely not the best collection of fairy tale retellings out there. I would only recommend if you are a diehard fan of Red Riding Hood retellings, because there are a couple interesting ones here.The Red CloakThe woodcutter finds out that the wolf isn’t the dangerous one in this story.The Red Riding Hood DollA lonely seamstress makes herself a daughter out of a red cloak only to find that daughters are more trouble than they are worth.Little Red Riding Hood’s FamilyA very fun story about immature parents, a Red Riding Hood with magical gifts, and a granny who is the wolf.Granny and the WolfGranny befriends a wolf and they both hide from the over amorous woodcutter.Deems the Wood GathererThis wood gatherer goes in and out of fairy tales leaving a path of unintentional destruction. This was a very cute story and funny.Why Willy and His Brother Won’t Ever Amount to AnythingA couple of no good color blind brothers think everything is a wolf. This was probably my least favorite story of the collection.The Little Red Headache: A wolf determined to return Red’s basket gets a headache.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5great for a chuckle.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This is a short collection of eight variations of "Little Red Riding Hood," told from different perspectives, and probably intended for a YA audience. As with most short story collections, I liked some better than others: some left me grinning in appreciation, a few were merely pleasant, none were awful. (My favorites were the one in which the grandmother needed to outwit an annoying woodcutter and the one told from the red cloak's point of view.) But none of the stories was truly gripping, and the book as a whole came across as much as an exercise in retelling a story as it did just a book to be read for fun.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This collection was a lot of fun. Vivian Vande Velde retells the story of "Little Red Riding Hood" eight different times in eight different ways. These stories range from the amusing to the even more amusing.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This was wonderful fun to read. Especially the introduction. Vivian is right - what sort of a grandaughter can't even tell apart a member of her own family from a member of a different species? :)
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5“Cloaked in Red” is a series of eight rewritten Little Red Riding Hood stories. The stories are various degrees of amusing and humerous as the author adds what she thinks would add more substance and believability to the story. In the original versions, she considers the characters to be flat, unrealistic, dense, in some cases, bizarre; the setting and plot to be dull; and the theme to be unclear. She sums up her feelings in the following sentence: “’Little Red Riding Hood’ is a strange and disturbing story that should probably not be shared with children.”One retelling is about a girl named Meg whose mother, to her extreme embarrassment, has re-dyed her plain grey cloak to a vivid red. Instead of a basket of food Meg is returning a not so clean bowl to her grandmother who lives on the other side of town and because of this new cloak and her dislike of drawing attention to herself Meg decides to skirt the town and walk through the woods. On the way she ends up meeting a wolf, who does not talk and Meg is afraid of. She retreats until she hears a woodcutter and thinks she’s safe and back on her way to her grandmother’s. However, in this story the woodcutter is the bad guy who thinks he can get a reward for her safe return if she’s been missing for a few days. Unlike in the original story, Meg is a little bit cleverer and by howling she manages to summon the wolf, the hero. By throwing her grandmother’s smelly bowl at the woodcutter she manages to both distract the man and direct the wolf towards the woodcutter allowing her to escape.These short stories are easy to read and very entertaining, good for teens interested in twists and turns on classic tales.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloaked in red is all little short stories that go with little red riding hood. The first storey is about a girl whose mom own the town tailor shop. The daughter wanted a daughter. She spent three days sewing and creating the doll. On the first day that she finished the doll a rich women wanted to buy it. The mother said shear, but the daughter run out and hid in the woods. Then the doll disappears during the night. The little girl asked a wood cutter were she went. He said that she was just a little ways away up the street. She found her getting on a horse with a guy. The girl told the doll to get down she said no. that was how that storey ended. The book has the little short stories that in the end run together.I thought this book was a great quick read. It kept me entertained for about a day. I believe that it had some gross/gruesome parts; it should be for 7th grade and up. it give it a 3 1/2 stars because it was too short. All in all it was a good read.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Once upon a time, after fashion was discovered but before people had makeovers on TV, there was a young girl... Eight fractured fairy tale versions of Little Red Riding Hood! Lots of sarcastic humor and alternative settings, this has oddball humor and mild horror (remember, the original had people eaten and animals carved up). Sometimes the focus is the girl, sometimes the grandmother, sometimes the wolf, and sometimes the woodsman -- and none of the stories quite go in the same direction! Great for anyone who likes asking "what if..." and especially fun for those who like satire. 7th grade and up.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I liked the one story a little bit, but most of them were horrible and boring.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ten interesting stories about how Little Red Riding Hood could have happened. Cute and concise, but not my favorite.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/510 different takes on Little Red Riding Hood
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Clever takes on the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Using the tale of Little Red Riding Hood, "the girl with the unfortunate name and the inability to tell the difference between her grandmother and a member of a different species," as her basis, Vivian Vande Velde presents eight short, humorous tales. The book is worth picking up for Vande Velde's introduction alone, in which she incisively deconstructs the story. The stories, of which "Granny and the Wolf" and "The Little Red Headache" particularly stand out, present a range of viewpoints and variations on the story, from a helpful wolf to an avaricious woodcutter to a werewolf grandmother. Overall, this is an excellent collection for anyone who enjoys retellings, particularly comical ones, of fairy tales.