Red Riding Hood: When good stories go bad.

Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakey-Cartwright, based on the screenplay by David Leslie Johnson
First printing: January 2011 by Poppy (imprint of Hachette Book Group)
Cover Art by Craig Phillips
Hand Lettering by Jessica Hische

I have to admit that I watched the Red Riding Hood movie before reading this book. While the movie came off as a bit silly, I did enjoy it and the art that went into making it was truly beautiful. I was hoping that the book would reveal a deeper telling of the story, and bring the characters to life for me. So how did it fare?

Not as well as I was hoping.

Red Riding Hood is a dark re-telling of the famous fairy tale. The village of Daggorhorn is plagued by a wolf lurking in the woods. Animal sacrifices must be left out on full moon nights to keep the beast from turning its wrath on the villagers. This grisly town is home to a girl named Valerie. She is known not only for her beauty but for her ability to run and climb trees with the boys. She attracts the attention of Henry, a boy from the wealthiest family in town. Her parents agree to an arranged marriage between him and Valerie, but Valerie barely knows him.

"Grandmother came up behind Valerie and draped something over her shoulders.
'How's this?'
Valerie looked down. It was a beautiful, bright red cloak.
'Grandmother..." Valerie had never seen anything like it. It was the red of far away, of fantasies, an overseas red, a red that Daggorhorn had never seen,  a red that did not belong there.
'I made it for your wedding.'
Valerie looked down at her bracelet.
'The wedding doesn't feel like mine. It feels like I'm being sold.'" (page 130-131)

When Valerie's childhood friend Peter returns to town, her sister is found mauled to death in a nearby field. The wolf has broken the peace. In her grief, Valerie finds solace in Peter. They begin to have feelings for each other that are more than friendship, and jealousy flares between Peter and Henry. But the death toll rises, and Valerie begins to suspect that Peter may have something to do with it. Neighbor turns against neighbor, and soon they will call into question what the girl wearing the cloak of "the devil's color" knows. The village is stirred into madness in pursuit of an answer: Who is the wolf?

Final Rating: 2.5 out of 5
While I did love the plot in this story, the book had some major problems. I was hoping to see more detail in the characters than you see in the movie, but they fell flat. Valerie in particular had no tone. She lacked a sense of self. Any girl in the village could have replaced her and the story would have remained the same. Peter and Henry have the same issues. They are very basic characters- the typical bad boy and good guy. But the most condemning thing about this book is that you have to go to www.redridinghoodbook.com to read the final chapter. I understand that the book is based off a movie, but that is shameless self-promotion. Being that I was on vacation with no internet when I finished the book, I was doubly disappointed to find that the last chapter wasn't included. This is a book that you can pass up and be assured that you haven't missed anything.

Favorite Quote: "Everyone called Roxanne and Claude redheads, but Valerie never knew why. She thought it must have been more for lack of imagination. She would call them six-o'clock-in-the-evening-sunset-heads. Bottom-of-the-lake-tendrils-of-algae-heads. Valerie grew up feeling envious of those heads of hair because she felt they were something special, a mark from God." (page 30)

Red Riding Hood is available as a physical or digital copy through most booksellers, including Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

The Solace of Leaving Early

The Solace of Leaving Early by Haven Kimmel
First Printing: 2002 by Doubleday
Cover Art by Marc Cozza

I had intended to do something a bit more fun with the photos for this book, but Indiana weather being what it is, we are home-bound for today. Tornado warnings aside, let's get started on this fantastic book from an Indiana native!

Haven Kimmel grew up in this state, and most of her novels are set here. The Solace of Leaving Early is no exception. The novel is set in the fictional town of Haddington. Langston Braverman has just come home to live with her parents after walking out of her oral exams for her Ph.D. Langston rejects small town life, and every moment at home is a torture for her. The town is abuzz with the news of the death of a woman named Alice, someone Langston was friends with in childhood. Alice leaves behind two beautiful daughters who begin to have strange visions after their mother's death. They claim that the Virgin Mary appears to them in the trunk of a dogwood tree, and they change their names to Immaculata and Epiphany. Langston is drawn to the little girls, and that's how she meets Amos Townsend. Amos is the town preacher whose duty is to help the girls cope with their grief. But he questions his own faith in God, and that shakes his confidence.

" Amos's first inkling of his calling came not in church or during prayer; there was no conversion experience. In fact, he had never been fully convinced of the truth or efficacy of his vocation. He decided to become a minister while watching television as an undergraduate English major at Ohio State, sitting in a lounge with other boys from his dormitory. He could no longer remember the program, but it featured a detective who was stalking a multiple murderer, and the detective was driven in his work; driven, obviously, because lives depended on him succeeding. If the detective (Dirk, let's say) decided not to get up in the morning (or even in the middle of the night, in the middle of winter, during an ice storm) because he was too sad, innocent people would die and evil would reign victorious. I could do that job, Amos thought, feeling a peculiar wave of energy in the region of his stomach. He meant he could do that job except for the part about being a detective, and examining crime scenes and carrying a gun and living in immense danger all the time. And Amos also didn't want to smoke or drink too much coffee or whiskey, and he didn't really want to hang around with other policemen. He just wanted, somehow, to give his life to other people, and not so much to save them as to save himself." (page 96)

Langston becomes aware of Amos's secret doubts, and he resents it. He becomes determined to find out what she's hiding from her own past. The two try to get along for the sake of Immaculata and Epiphany, but tensions are high. As every question is answered with another question, the mystery boils over into a web of deceit and agony. Why did Langston walk out of her oral exams? What more is Amos hiding? And are these little girls really being visited by the Blessed Virgin?

Final Rating: 4 out of 5
I enjoyed this book immensely. I loved what it says about faith, how it doesn't have to always be blind and without doubts. More than anything, this book demonstrated what happens when very different people must come together under extraordinary circumstances. Immaculatta and Epiphany captured my heart, and I couldn't get enough of the banter between Amos and Langston. This book would have received a five-star rating if the ending had been more impressive. I don't want to give too much away; so I'll just say that the characters acted in ways that were very, well, out of character. It was one of those I-want-to-throw-this-book-across-the-room moments. Nevertheless, Haven Kimmel has a very honest and distinct voice. I can't wait to read more of her works, and I will be keeping this book to read again.

Her eyes follow you.

Favorite Quote:
This quote refers to a passage where a poverty-stricken Hispanic family's vehicle passes Amos on the highway. He suddenly feels an overpowering longing to be one of them. This is not the first time he has longed to be someone else, even someone less fortunate than himself.

"'Why does this happen to us?' Because we have abandoned an infinite number and variety of pure possibilities, and perhaps they live alongside the choices we did make, immortalized in the cosmic memory. Perhaps there are unknown lives walking alongside ours, those paths we didn't take, and we reach for them, we ache for them, and we don't know why. We have, none of us, lived our lives as we ought to have, and maybe that's a good, working definition of sin. God doesn't care, the angels don't care, no one is mad at us for our failures. But what agony, to know our better selves, the life we might have lived, just out of reach!" (page 32)

The Solace of Leaving Early is available in both physical and digital copies through all booksellers, including Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

The Twits and Other Relics of Childhood

The Twits by Roald Dahl
First Printing: 1930 by Johnathon Cape
Illustrated by Quentin Blake

I remember a time in my childhood where I wasn't very enthusiastic about reading. During my elementary years, the school required us to read an inordinate amount of books. Most of them bored me to tears. I remember writing an essay saying that I would "never, ever, EVER" read another Beverly Cleary book as long as I lived (don't hate me, Ramona fans!), and my mom had to watch closely to make sure I finished the books for my reports. As worthy as those books probably are, I was yearning for more fun in stories. My love of reading could have been extinguished all together, but then there are books like this to save the day.

When I was a kid, I got a box of hand-me-down books from my aunt. Out of all of them, this one was an instant favorite. This book was funny and adventurous, but more importantly, it was rude. It was unlike anything I had ever read before, and I ate it up. Mr. and Mrs. Twit were constantly playing pranks on each other and reveling in their nasty habits. It was one I had to read by myself because my parents were grossed out by it. But it made me laugh, and I would finish it only to immediately start it all over again. I was particularly tickled by the part about Mr. Twit and his beard full of food.

"If you looked closer still (hold your noses, ladies and gentlemen), if you peered deep into those moustachy bristles sticking out over his upper lip, you would probably see much larger objects that had escaped the wipe of his hand, things that had been there for months and months, like a piece of maggoty green cheese or a moldy old cornflake or even the slimy tail of a tinned sardine. Because of all this, Mr. Twit never went really hungry. By sticking out his tongue and curling it sideways to explore the hairy jungle around his mouth, he was always able to find a tasty morsel here and there to nibble on." (page 7)


The Twits pull prank after prank, from Mrs. Twit serving her husband worm spaghetti to Mr. Twit putting frogs in his wife's bed. Every scheme gets more elaborate than the next, until you meet Mr. Twit's pet monkeys. Mr. Twit dreams of getting rich with his own Upside-down Monkey Circus, so he forces his pets to stand on their heads for hours. Muggle-wump, the father monkey, devises a plan to get his revenge on the terrible Twits!

Final Rating: 5 out of 5

This is a great book to get kids interested in reading. It has all the whimsy of a typical Dahl book with a nasty twist. Yes, it is a little bit gross, but what kid doesn't like to be grossed out? For any beginning reader, humor is a great way to start. I still reach for this book whenever I need a laugh!

Favorite Quote: "If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts, every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until it gets so ugly you can hardly bear to look at it. A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely." (page 9)

Another childhood favorite, Simba!

The Twits is available in both physical and digital copies through most major booksellers, including Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

Watchers at the Pond

Watchers at the Pond by Franklin Russell
Illustrations by Robert W. Arnold
Cover Art by Diane and Leo Dillon
First Printing: 1961 by Knopf

I spent most of my biology classes filling in coloring pages and growing basil plants in paper cups. Needless to say, I didn't learn very much. Being a person who thinks in narratives, this book filled in some of the gaps in my knowledge.

Watchers at the Pond describes the life cycle of a pond over the course of a year. There is no human encroachment at the pond, and life goes on as nature intended it. Every creature, from the amoeba to the red-tailed hawk, serves an invaluable purpose in sustaining the pond's natural balance. The survival methods of the plants and animals are explained in detail with rich description and character.

Russell makes the animals comes to life without the need to personify them. He succeeded in keeping their integrity intact while still making them multi-dimensional. I particularly enjoyed the story of the old muskrat who had fathered many kits in his time; and the male bullfrog who still called for a mate even though he was the only one of his kind left at the pond. It was interesting to learn that many insects, including bumblebees and many species of beetles, hide between rocks and inside of trees through the winter so they can emerge again in the spring. One of my favorite insects was the praying mantis. It was fascinating to know that when praying mantises hatch they are vulnerable to ants, which are an adult mantis's main food source. Ants feast on the baby mantises, but the ones who get away grow into an ant's worst nightmare.

As in all life cycles, death was a major theme in this book. It occurs without much emotion. For example, a young crow fails to follow the rest of his flock into the shelter of the pine trees during a snow storm. He alights on a naked branch. It becomes clear that it is to cold for him to survive, but he is afraid to fly in the dark. In the morning his body is seen frozen to the branch, and his flock leaves without a backward glance. Death is simply accepted by all.

Final Rating: 4.5 out of 5
This book is a breed all its own. It transcends fiction and non-fiction, and its descriptions of life at the pond helped me remember things about the life cycles of many creatures. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in biology, and anyone who retains knowledge best when it is put in the form of a story. I wish Franklin Russell would have made this into a series, with each book describing a different piece of land.

Favorite Quote: "At one moment, all the winged ants began moving to the surface, hustling up dark tunnels and jostling unwinged ants in the pre-eminent purpose to reach the hot sunlight. They tumbled out of the mounds and rose quickly into hot puffing upper air. Later that day, and on ensuing days, male ants steadily fell from the sky, dying and dead. Their lives were ended the moment they mated with the flying females, who were themselves coming to earth to face a new beginning of life. With the living sperm of the males within their bodies, many would now remain pregnant for ten to fifteen years and then produce colonies of their own creation. These new ant communities would have all sprung from a few hours of flight in the blazing summer sky over the pond."

Watchers at the Pond is currently out of print. It can only be obtained through a used bookseller.