Little Miss Red - Softcover

Robin Palmer grew up in Massachusetts and New Jersey, and graduated from Boston University before she hit the road for Hollywood. Starting as an assistant in the television literary department of the William Morris Agency, she quickly moved up the ranks and spent the next decade as a literary agent, producer, and television network executive at Lifetime Television, where she developed over one hundred scripts and oversaw the production of over thirty of the cable network's original movies. In 2001, she remembered that she had originally intended to spend her life either as a writer or a toll booth collector (so she could indulge her penchant for spending her days alone reading), but as there are no toll roads in southern California, she decided to give the writing thing a try. Since then, she's written everything from screenplays to essays to a novel to a preschool guide. Although she's constantly threatening to move, she currently resides in New York City.

Palmer’s latest fairy tale–based romance focuses on 17-year-old Sophie Greene, a nice Jewish girl from Studio City, California. A voracious reader of romance novels who seeks parallels in her own life, Sophie is bored with her steady but unexciting boyfriend of three years and ready for a new adventure. She gets sent to grandmother’s house (in Florida), bearing lox and whitefish. While on the plane, she meets charming 19-year-old Jack, who’s all sweet talk and clearly bad news. Little Red Riding Hood, anyone? Palmer offers some clever twists and characterizations in what turns out to be a morality tale (stick with the steady known quantity rather than the unreliable charmer). This quick, predictable read may not challenge much, but it’s frequently entertaining, and readers will enjoy watching Sophie break free of some of her habits and learn to appreciate not only her long-suffering boyfriend but her grandmother as well. Though it’s not as deep as the books of Gail Carson Levine, Shannon Hale, or Adèle Geras, there’s still plenty of room for this frothy addition to the modern fairy-tale genre. Grades 7-11. --Debbie Carton