Little Red, the Detective (Science Folktales) by Lois Wickstrom – Review by Tara Johnson Barnes

Little Red, the Detective: a science folktale by Lois Wickstrom
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Maureen is asked by her Grannie to come visit so she can measure her for a new sweater she is knitting for her. Maureen loved the last sweater her Grannie made for her so much that she wore it all the time. She wore the red sweater so much that her friends and family started calling her Little Red.

When Little Red sets off into the woods to visit her Grannie, she stops to look for purple cone flowers to take for her Grannie to use for tea. There are so many similar looking flowers that Little Red is unsure which is the one she is looking for. When a wolf comes along and asks her if he can help Little Red figures that she will accept his offer because he would know better than her. The wolf picks out some cone-shaped purple flowers and hands them to her. As Little Red is taking out her plant identification book to identify the flowers, she realizes the wolf has vanished. She continues on to Grannie’s house, but Grannie has vanished. It is now up to Little Red to solve the mystery of where Grannie went.

I loved the author’s cute twist on the classic version of the story Little Red Riding Hood. Little Red has some sleuthing skills under her belt and uses those to save her Grannie from the big bad wolf. Young kids will learn about science and fingerprinting in this story. This book had a bit of mystery and sense of danger to it with an underlying message about how it is unsafe to talk to strangers. As always, the illustrations were beautiful and really brought the story to life.

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