Jen Madigan Photography

Happy Halloween everyone! This weekend I had an impromtu photo session with my favorite subject (Einstein, of course) and his friend Avery from down the street. When I heard Avery's Halloween costume was Little Red Riding Hood, a lightbulb went off and I thought it would make an adorable Halloween post. So, without further ado, let's begin.

Once upon a time there was a dear little girl who was loved by everyone who looked at her, but most of all by her grandmother, and there was nothing that she would not have given to the child. Once she gave her a little riding hood of red velvet, which suited her so well that she would never wear anything else; so she was always called 'Little Red Riding Hood.'

One day her mother said to her: 'Come, Little Red Riding Hood, here is a piece of cake and a bottle of wine; take them to your grandmother, she is ill and weak, and they will do her good. Set out before it gets hot, and when you are going, walk nicely and quietly and do not run off the path, or you may fall and break the bottle, and then your grandmother will get nothing; and when you go into her room, don't forget to say, "Good morning", and don't peep into every corner before you do it.'

'I will take great care,' said Little Red Riding Hood to her mother, and gave her hand on it.

The grandmother lived out in the wood, half a league from the village, and just as Little Red Riding Hood entered the wood, a wolf met her. Red Riding Hood did not know what a wicked creature he was, and was not at all afraid of him.

'Good day, Little Red Riding Hood,' said he.

'Thank you kindly, wolf.'

Let's just stop right there. As you all know, the story continues with the wiley wolf befriending Red Riding Hood and accompanying her on her visit to Grandmother's house. He eventually ditches her as she looks for flowers in the woods and rushes to Grandmother's house where he gobbles her up, and then impersonates her so he can eat Little Red when she arrives.

Have you ever thought maybe the Brothers Grimm got it wrong? What if the Big Bad Wolf wasn't so big at all? (Maybe he just had a really good PR person like Tom Cruise, who is much shorter than he seems.) What if Red Riding Hood was the wiley one, capturing the (not so) Big Bad Wolf and turning him into her pet? Well that's how this story goes...

The wolf resisted at first...showing Red Riding Hood his large, pointy teeth in a snarl. She found it quite amusing.

The wolf thought he hit it big when Red invited him into her basket, but there were no goodies to be found. Foiled again!

The wolf looked for any way in which to escape, but this made Little Red Riding Hood very sad...

After awhile the wolf decided that maybe he would gobble Little Red right up, so he helped himself to a taste.

Finally the wolf determined that Little Red Riding Hood did not taste quite right, and he was kind of tired of trying to escape (and always getting caught), so he figured he might as well relax for awhile.