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Summary
Summary
Violet loves to tell stories to her baby brother, Peter. This time she's narrating them right into their own fairytale.
If you love stories of imagination, such as Little Red Riding Hood, Where the Wild Things Are, and Charlie and Lola--you'll adore spending time with these two courageous siblings.
"Once upon a time, a brave little girl and her brother set out on a long, long journey," Violet tells Peter. "A journey fraught with danger and peril."
Riding their building's elevator and traveling the hallways past apartment doors to bring soup to a sick neighbor, Violet and Peter encounter both real and imagined adventure--getting lost in the laundry room, running into a troll, and escaping scary noises in the nick of time, only to find that their poor sick neighbor looks . . . like a wolf!
Clever, thought-provoking, and with an unforgettable ending, Violet and the Woof is a book that explores the power of imaginative storytelling and will have kids asking: "What's real"
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Grabill (Halloween Good Night) swaps the forest for an apartment building in this contemporary story-within-a-story spin on "Little Red Riding Hood." When red-clad Violet and her younger brother must deliver food to a sick neighbor in their building, they set out together, basket, wagon, and stuffed animal in tow. Violet's imagination-filled narration-involving a "damp, dingy cave" (the building's laundry room) and "brush and brambles" (stairs)-adds an element of adventure to their errand. Upon arriving at their destination, they discover their "neighbor" silently sitting on the couch wrapped in a blanket. "Wolf!" Violet exclaims upon spotting his suspiciously large eyes and hairy ears. "Woof!" her brother more accurately echoes, and the pair chases the creature down the hallway, where their real neighbor happily accepts a slobbery kiss from the dog and a thermos of soup from the children. Illustrations by Tolstikova (Friend or Foe)-a bright mixture of ink wash, acrylic paint, and pencil renderings in red and yellow, green and blue-layer the pretend forest and the building. And the playful expressions on the children's faces make it clear that Violet is (mostly) in control of her story-and its happy ending. Ages 4-8. Author's agent: Victoria Wells Arms, Wells Arms Literary. Illustrator's agent: Sean McCarthy, McCarthy Literary. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Violet tells a "Little Red Riding Hood"inspired story with herself and toddler brother as main characters. She dramatically narrates "a journey fraught with danger and peril" as they make their way to a sick neighbor's apartment to deliver soup and cookies. The mixed-media illustrations play along, bringing Violet's vivid storytelling to life in the ordinary apartment-building setting. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A modern-day Little Red Riding Hood travels through her apartment building.Violet, a determined girl wearing a short red dress, and her toddler brother, Peter, are exploring their building. Both are white. While pulling Peter's wagon through the hallway, she starts telling him a familiar tale. In the elevator, they meet a woman with dark brown skin and white hair carrying a dog whose shadow appears to be quite ferocious. When Peter says: "WOOF!" (his only word), Violet assures him (and herself) that it's not a wolf. Violet informs the woman that they are bringing their sick neighbor Papa Jean-Louis "soup and cookies," and she responds, "I'll be heading that way myself." After traversing deep woods with animals and a "damp, dingy, cave," they finally reach their destination, where they encounter someone all wrapped up on the couch. Is it Papa Jean-Louis? Or is it a creature with eyes "so big," "ears sohairy," and teeth too sharp? Violet's storytelling skills and overactive imagination are augmented by the colorful illustrations, done in a nave style and combining the everyday environment and the fairy-tale world. It's charming, but it missteps. Violet's reassuring interjections to Peter during her own narration interrupt the flow of the story, and positioning the two dark-skinned people as objects of fear is unfortunate despite the revelation that they are clearly benevolent.Neighborliness, sibling friendship, and bits of a fractured fairy tale can't overcome the book's limitations. (Picture book. 4-6) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.