Carmine a little more red by Melissa Sweet

Before you rush into this book make sure you stop at the end papers (both ends please).  Carmine a little more Red begins with an artists page showing all the 'reds' such as magenta, vermilion, scarlet, fuchsia, sienna, crimson and ruby.  I just noticed how many of these we use as names.  The last end paper has more colour paint samples with letters from the alphabet soup which Carmine and Granny enjoy at the end of her adventures.

Words are a key to this brilliant book.  Lately we have been talking in schools about something called Multi-modal literacy.  Carmine a little more Red certainly fits this idea.  This book is an alphabet book, the story of Red Riding Hood, an art lesson, contains dialogue presented as speech bubbles and it is a book which uses the most amazingly rich vocabulary. This is a book for all ages.  The youngest child will enjoy Red Riding Hood in a new guise while an older child might appreciate the clever storytelling structure using the alphabet.

Here are some of the special words :  (in alphabetical order!)
clutter, cardinal, dilly-dally, exquisite, knoll, lurking, nincompoop, pluck and surreal.

Melissa Sweet produces illustrations that look deceptively simple and always joyous.  Her web site is a real treat - take time to dip in.  Here is an interview with Melissa.  Here is a set of lesson notes.

Here is a terrific review where you will learn a new word abecedarian - it means using the alphabet.