"Oh, Grandmother! Your eyes are so shiny!"

Little Red Riding Hood written & illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman (Holiday House, 1983)

For Christmas, The Husband gave me two children's picture books with illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman -- Hershel and the Hanukkah Demons and Little Red Riding Hood. While Hershel is an old favorite, I didn't remember ever reading Little Red Riding Hood, but looking forward to it as Hyman remains one of my favorite children's illustrators. There are so many books I picked up as a child because of her drawings!

Well, Little Red Riding Hood turned out to be fantastic read. The richly-detailed illustrations are lush and evocative -- the woods off the path are sun-dappled, green and tempting and Grandmother's zinnias practically bloom off the pages. I could look at the illustrations forever, I think, and notice something new in them every time. I was half-way through my third go-round when I finally noticed the half-hidden cat following Little Red Riding Hood through the woods. Little Red Riding Hood makes for a terrific game of I Spy and it's really no wonder it is Caldecott Honor Book.

Hyman's superb retelling is not sanitized, by the way. The wolf does eat Grandmother and the huntsman does kill (and gut) the wolf. However, Hyman's retelling isn't gruesome in its details and the illustrations describe the intent of the scenes, but not the action (the huntsman stands over the sleeping wolf, etc).