Little Red and the Cat Who Loved Cake

Another triumph from a master of wordless picture books.

This inventive, largely wordless "Little Red Riding Hood" remix begins as bearded Big Red and young Little Red, both pale-skinned and red-haired, together bake a cake at the Pat-a-Cake Bakery. Their speech balloons contain not words, but pictures that initially show someone with gray hair and spectacles--Grandma, presumably--before Little Red sets off with the cake. The duo's golden cat (whose pictorial cake thoughts border on the obsessive), follows Little Red through a village whose storefronts feature famous nursery rhyme characters ("Humpty-Dumpty Insurance") and whose denizens are of varying skin tones. When the cat thinks it will be spotted, it flattens itself hilariously against handy cat images, such as a band poster and a park monument of Puss in Boots. Upon the feline's arrival at Grandma's house, the fairy tale undergoes another twist. Lehman fills the spreads with information and diversion: there are hidden sheep to find, nursery rhyme characters to identify (one pair in the park, for example, falls down a hill and bumps their heads), and a nursery rhyme newspaper on the endpapers to read. Yet there's no excess busy-ness--the Caldecott Honoree's clean, clear lines offer a sense of structured calm. Ages 6-9. (Nov.)