the gingerbread boy, little red riding hood and the house that jack built

a compilation of three great stories...i love the naïveté of the cover!

little red riding hood is perhaps my favorite fairy tale of all...i grew up with a large painting of little red with the wolf hiding behind a tree. the painting was by this man named eddie newman, who was a street fighter boxer friend of my grandfather's. it was hung directly across from my bed and it gave me nightmares for years.
i used to have these cartoon dreams that the wolf was after me and would catch me by my wrist and gnaw on it. really unpleasant stuff for my 5 year old self. but after a while, i guess it seeped in and i grew to love it and not fear it...and now i'm a bit of a morbid adult and i'm sure this painting has something to do with it!

i told this story to a college professor of mine...i was taking a class titled something like "medieval women's culture" (it was a summer course). after the shock of troubadour poetry being read to me at 8 a.m., the love-lorn letters between abelard and heloise, and many discussions on nuns...i was prompted to share this for some reason and my professor said, "well you must be afraid of men!!" i realized her point, being, that fairy tales concern girls/women in particular ways that they might not men...although i'm not sure about that. anyways, discussion for another day.

the gingerbread boy, little red riding hood and the house that jack built
1945, whitman publishing, racine
illustrated by hilda miloche and wilma kane