Little Red Hot

Gr 1–3—A Texas twist on a familiar tale. Little Red Hot gets her name from the peppers she's so fond of eating. When she visits her sick grandma, she takes her a red-hot chili pie. Who should she meet as she rides through the woods? Pecos Bill, the Three Tamales, and, of course, Señor Lobo. The wolf beats her to her grandmother's house and disguises himself as the old woman, but one bite of Little Red Hot's pie sends him skyrocketing out of sight. Different art mediums-gouache, acrylic, and colored-pencil drawings-have all been merged via use of the computer and provide a lot of detail and appeal. The red hues help bring out the feeling of heat, while the action in the illustrations gives a sense of movement and flow across the pages. An author's note provides information about peppers and how they get their heat plus how the heat is measured. Kimmel also warns people about eating hot chilies. A fun fractured fairy tale.—Sandra Welzenbach, Villarreal Elementary School, San Antonio, TX