Sarah Moon 2002 Book cover for Charles Perrault & Sarah Moon, 2002, Little Red Riding Hood, (Creative Editions)
Book cover Amazon - USA Sandra L. Beckett, 2007, Crossover Versions of Little Red Riding Hood, in Rosie Findlay, Sébastien Salbayre, STORIES FOR CHILDREN, HISTORIES OF CHILDHOOD / HISTOIRES D'ENFANT, HISTOIRES D'ENFANCE. TOME II, (PufR - Presses universitaires François-Rabelais), pp. 107-117
Sarah Moon's controversial version of Perrault's Little Red Riding Hood was published in 1983 by Creative Education, which is well-known for its daring, innovative picture books. Using photography to transpose the tale into a modern urban context, Moon relates the sinister events that take place during the dark hours between dusk and dawn in a series of sombre, dramatic black and white photographs. Awarded the Premio Grafico at the Bologna Children's Book Fair in 1984, the picture book received a mixed reaction of profound admiration and scandalized disapprobation. Censorship of the book was particularly widespread in the United States, where it was banned in many libraries. The controversy centred largely on the question of target audience. An Italian reader felt that the jury mistook a very refined book for adult voyeurs for a children's book and an American reviewer and social worker thought that the Bologna Book Fair prize sticker should be accompanied by a red HANDLE WITH CARE stamp since the book can frighten even adult readers (qtd. in Garrett 9). The shocking effect of Moon's photographs of the child model, Morgan, is not unlike that of Anne Ikhlefs 1985 film, La véritable histoire du Chaperon Rouge (The real story of Red Riding Hood), which casts a seven-year-old actress, Justine Bayard, in the role of Red Riding Hood. The realism of the media used to portray a young, flesh and blood girl in Moon's stark, black and white photography and Ikhlef s dramatic cinematography accounts for the very powerful, shocking impact that these two exceptional retellings have on viewers.
