In this gender-bent retelling of the classic fairy tale, little Leroy LeRouge’s favorite coat is a red riding hood that his Moo Moo (grandmother) gave him. “It had frills and bows that made Leroy feel more special than a birthday cake.”
Naturally, he wears it when his mother asks him to bring a batch of her homemade pea bean fish-bone muffins to Moo Moo—only to encounter a wolf, who harasses him about wearing something that looks like girls’ clothes, a “silly, swishy thing.” Leroy doesn’t let himself be cowed (or wolfed), however, proclaiming, “I’m mighty when I wear this…. I’m not trading it for some plain old socks to satisfy a grumbly grump telling boys what they should and shouldn’t wear.”
When he gets to Moo Moo’s, the wolf is still harassing him, but Moo Moo explains to the creature that she gave it to Leroy, “Not to dress him up as a boy or a girl but ’cause I knew he’d feel as mighty as a firecracker wearing it.”
Leroy finally says he’ll give the wolf the hood if he eats one of the pea bean fish-bone muffins. The wolf tries—but can’t swallow the horrid muffins. As Moo Moo puts it, they are “nastier than poo on a shoe,” a turn of phrase that they all repeat.
Leroy, in a surge of generosity, then invites the wolf to lunch. The wolf is overcome by this gesture of kindness and the possibility of friendship. They all live happily—and mightily—ever after.
While the wolf’s reformation happens perhaps a bit too fast, the bouncy, colorful language and Leroy’s unremitting self-confidence make this story stand out. Yes, there’s a scatological reference (and a chance kids will repeat “poo on a shoe” incessantly after reading it), but really that only makes this fun, stereotype-busting fable more likely to stick in kids’ heads.
