View source for The Cat, the Dog, Little Red, the Exploding Eggs, the Wolf and Grandma's Wardrobe by Diane Fox and Christyan Fox

{{infobox1
|title=The Cat, the Dog, Little Red, the Exploding Eggs, the Wolf and Grandma's Wardrobe
|sort=Cat, the Dog, Little Red, the Exploding Eggs, the Wolf and Grandma's Wardrobe, The
|author=Diane Fox and Christyan Fox
|reviewer=Ruth Ng
|genre=For Sharing
|rating=5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=978910277003
|pages=32
|publisher=Words & Pictures
|date=September 2014
|website=http://www.christyanfox.co.uk/
|video=lvmJeD5LnZA
|summary=One of those fabulous picture books that works beautifully for kids who are starting to think maybe they're too old for picture books!  Funny and cheeky, this is definitely worth a look.
|cover=1910277002
|aznuk=1910277002
|aznus=1910277002
}}
Have you ever sat down to read a story aloud to someone and found that they interrupt at every given opportunity, asking questions, making comments, and generally fidgeting with anything and everything?  I'm sure if you've spent any time with a toddler then this will be a familiar experience.  This story plays on that, with a cat trying, very hard, to tell a dog the story of Little Red Riding Hood.  But dog can't sit still, and he wants to know what Red's superpower is, because if she has a cape she must be a superhero, and he's pretty sure that Red must have zapped the wolf with her kindness ray when she met him...

I really liked this story.  I like it when I find picture books that, really, could be just as much for the grown up as for the child because then I have a proper excuse for reading them.  This one was very funny.  Dog is delightfully random, interrupting poor cat at any given moment with suggestions of what is going on in the story.  His interruptions get more and more frustrating for cat.  For example, when cat explains that Little Red Riding Hood has a basket of eggs and butter and cakes, dog is immediately wondering how she fights crime and is it a special gadget basket, or are they exploding eggs?!  Cat perseveres with the story, even in the face of dog's criticisms of the plot - Red can't be all that smart because she doesn't realise that the wolf is a wolf and not her grandma (a fact that has always bothered me in that particular fairy tale actually!)

The pictures, simple drawings of cat and dog throughout, are brilliant.  They add wonderfully to the humour, I think because of where they're placed on the page and the tone of the words they go with.  Dog is endearing, if frustrating, character and poor, poor cat, I do sympathise since I have had a fidgety little girl who tends to sit next to me whilst I read brushing her doll's hair or opening and shutting boxes, or playing with a bit of plasticine she's found...

This isn't really one for sharing with toddlers as the story is quite complex.  I think it works best for those who are a bit older and can have more of an appreciation for the trials (and the humour!) of trying to tell someone a story when they aren't really listening!  Or the frustrations of a reader who is desperately trying to understand the story but needs to query every little point.  My very nearly eight-year-old daughter absolutely loved this book, for example, and it made her laugh out loud.  She even came down from her bunk bed where she was reading to herself to show me the funniest page!  The tone is brilliant, is cleverly done and so very simple yet it works beautifully.  Naughtiness and imagination and a good, fun story that is great to read at home, or lovely to give as a gift.

For those who believe not all wolves are big and bad try [[Red Riding Hood and the Sweet Little Wolf by Rachael Mortimer and Liz Pichon]] or of course, sometimes, the wolf really does eat grandma as in [[Choking Wolf (Urgency Emergency!) by Dosh Archer]].  You might also enjoy [[Cat and Dog by Helen Oswald and Zoe Waring]] and [[Rain or Shine (Snip and Snap) by Diane Fox and Christyan Fox]].

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{{toptentext|list=Top Ten Books For Sharing 2014}}

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[[Category:Diane Fox]]
[[Category:Christyan Fox]]
[[Category:Emerging Readers]]