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Jake Gander, Storyville Detective: The Case of the Greedy Granny
A series of fairly obvious clues help Jake Gander prove Red R. Hood's suspicions about her granny's strange new look.
32 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 17, 2020
Lots of character in this short story, a cross between a noir detective story and Little Red Riding Hood, the humor usually lands. The art was a bit of a weird hodgepodge of real photos and hand-drawn cartoony style. It’s too bad not everything was hand-drawn as I really like that part of the illustrations.
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January 31, 2014They say you should never judge a book by its cover, but I usually do. I will admit that I needed a book, and so I grabbed this one quickly. Judging from the cover of the book I already had my mind set up that I was probably not going to enjoy this book or see any use for this in the classroom. I was wrong. I loved this book because it takes a traditional, classic picture book and puts a twist to it. The book is about a cop who lives in Storyville. He takes stories with sad endings, and rewrites them. He gets a call one day from R. Riding Hood about how her grandmother seems to have taken a new look and she is worried. The story walks through the case of the missing granny to find out that the Big Bad Wolf has been living at her grandmother's house. Eventually the cop arrests the wolf and we find out that R. Hood's granny is off at Easter Island picking eggs.
The great thing about this story is that it is very creative. It is written in a great point of view, and has many common reference points. A child who is familiar with the story of Little Red Riding Hood will find themselves very interested in this story. The thing about this book that most resonated with me what the author's writing style. George McClements uses common cops words and phrases to really fit the plot of the story. He walks through an investigation of the wolf just as a cop would and uses familiar phrases from the classic story to resonate with the readers.
The illustrations were amazing. It took me a while to figure out the purpose of them. It seems that it is made up of pictures that are paper clipped to the pages of the actual book. The cop himself is in black and white and resembles an old, traditional detective. This is unique because it is made to look as if the detective himself was "cut out and pasted" into the story of Little Red Riding Hood, which was his job description. He is supposed to re-write bad endings to traditional stories. That is what this book in its entirety represents. Essentially it is a story within a story; a creative way to put a new twist on a traditional classic.
I would definitely recommend this book to teachers. I've never heard of this book, and I cannot believe it is not as popular as it should be. As a teacher, I would use this book as a way to teach or enhance critical thinking. Both stories could be read; the traditional and this book. As a class, we could compare each story, showing the importance of how this book demonstrates a different point of view of the same story. It is not a new story entirely, as the plot is very similar. This book is an excellent way to show point of view. Once familiar with these activities, students could pick their favorite story and rewrite it based on another point of view. It is a great exercise to build critical thinking in children.
The great thing about this story is that it is very creative. It is written in a great point of view, and has many common reference points. A child who is familiar with the story of Little Red Riding Hood will find themselves very interested in this story. The thing about this book that most resonated with me what the author's writing style. George McClements uses common cops words and phrases to really fit the plot of the story. He walks through an investigation of the wolf just as a cop would and uses familiar phrases from the classic story to resonate with the readers.
The illustrations were amazing. It took me a while to figure out the purpose of them. It seems that it is made up of pictures that are paper clipped to the pages of the actual book. The cop himself is in black and white and resembles an old, traditional detective. This is unique because it is made to look as if the detective himself was "cut out and pasted" into the story of Little Red Riding Hood, which was his job description. He is supposed to re-write bad endings to traditional stories. That is what this book in its entirety represents. Essentially it is a story within a story; a creative way to put a new twist on a traditional classic.
I would definitely recommend this book to teachers. I've never heard of this book, and I cannot believe it is not as popular as it should be. As a teacher, I would use this book as a way to teach or enhance critical thinking. Both stories could be read; the traditional and this book. As a class, we could compare each story, showing the importance of how this book demonstrates a different point of view of the same story. It is not a new story entirely, as the plot is very similar. This book is an excellent way to show point of view. Once familiar with these activities, students could pick their favorite story and rewrite it based on another point of view. It is a great exercise to build critical thinking in children.
January 13, 2011
I read this to my older niece and nephew a couple years ago, and really enjoyed it. I tried to do the voices all different, since I've heard that kids remember that sort of thing. My sister says they still read it almost every night.
March 25, 2013
I read this twice and got quite a chuckle out of it, but I didn't give it a 5 because I think the humor is above the heads of children of an age interested in picture books. It's cute, though, and funny.
August 4, 2016
Written as a spoof of noir, this book is a hilarious re-telling of Little Red Riding Hood.
June 19, 2009
Hilarious! Tons of jokes in the pictures that littles just wouldn't understand. Reminiscent of Mercer Mayer's early picture books, but with more contemporary art.
November 30, 2009
A fun, fractured look at the Little Red tale. I like this one best for an early elementary age crowd, rather than preschoolers.
July 16, 2014
It was okay
Library copy
Library copy
March 12, 2016
"My name is Jake Gander. I'm a cop. My beat: Storyville, a fairy-tale town where endings aren't always happy. My job is to rewrite them."
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews