Petite Rouge A Cajun Red Riding Hood

In Petite Rouge (Picture Puffins)Mike Artell retells the story of Red Riding Hood with animal characters and a Cajun setting.

Red Riding Hood, or Petite Rouge, is a goose who sets off with the traditional goodies to visit her sick grandmother. We meet not a wolf, but Claude the Gator, who also appears in Artell's Three Little Cajun Pigsas the villan.

Claude is no more successful with Red than he was with the pigs. There is also no vengeful woodcutter to kill the gator. Claude is distracted from his desire to eat Red and her grandmother after Red gets him to eat a bottle of hot sauce.

Artell has created another cute alternate fairy tale. Claude the gator makes an interesting substitute for the Big Bad Wolf.