posted on 01 May 2017

Red Riding Hood by Marjorie Priceman

I have several pop up book versions of this well known traditional story but this one is probably my favourite . The rich red of her hood as she looks out sideways at the reader from  the cover is gorgeous for a start. The silver writing of the title and choice of orange and purple colours to complement this is beautiful.There is so much to look at on every turn of the page and extra pop ups behind the text on other parts of the page which take you deeper into the story. I also like the way that the pictures leap beyond the page and the way in which you can examine them from different angles.

 But what makes this a special pop up book is the painterly quality of the pictures themselves. The red colours worn by the girl glow partly because of the way she is set against the contrasting colours of each background. The forest scene with a variety of trees and bushes that looks to be  on the verge of turning to autumnal colours is a good example with the wily wolf curling out from behind a tree. He then follows the winding path to grandmother’s cottage in the distance.

The interior of the cottage looks very cosy because of the warm orangey colours used and it is easy to see how Red Riding Hood might be lured across to the bed where the wolf hides behind a newspaper (observant readers will notice that this is upside down and that his tail is hanging out of the end of the bed). The frightening moment when he leaps out to eat her is particularly splendid as he rises up wearing the flowery yellow nightdress to show us his terrifyingly sharp teeth and claws.

In this version, she tricks him into putting her into a cooking pot with extra salt and pepper. This makes him sneeze and out shoots a startled undigested grandma ' rattled but not badly hurt'. They chase the wolf out of the house in a wonderfully vibrant double page spread with no words . Again, the combination of reds, oranges and blues give it an almost Mediterranean feel and the energy conveyed by their furious faces is clear as he leaps out of the book.

The last pages show the two of them enjoying a meal in the cosy kitchen. Grandma then reads her a version of the story where she does as her mother tells her and does not talk to the wolf. This is a little book that is cleverly superimposed on the final right hand page. But this is a pretty boring undramatic story and the final treat opens up beneath this showing the outside of the cottage at night with Red Riding Hood lying in bed with grandma reading to her and the howling wolf silhouetted against a full moon.

I think that the appeal of this beautifully illustrated book goes way beyond the impressive paper engineering. The overall design and use of vivid colours is appropriately theatrical and the style rather reminds me of Chagall. I shall be on the look out for more picture books by this interesting American writer and illustrator whose work has been variously described as ' riotous and exuberant' and 'has a 'playful deceptively casual style'.

Karen Argent

May 2017