This picturebook is an example of postmodern narratives in contemporary visual storytelling. The use of road signage is juxtaposed with the revolving cast of typical fairy tales famous both in different parts of Europe and throughout the world. A little girl, fittingly dressed in red, is waved off by her mother as she goes into the forest on her bicycle. As she travels through the forest, the road signs warn her of the events up ahead: she passes Hansel and Gretel, the Three Little Pigs, a knight in shining armour on 13 his way to slay a dragon. This text gets to the heart of cultural literacy as an acquired knowledge, pushing us to question how our understanding of the text might change if we were not aware of these stories. Of course, the reader knows the end of the story before the little girl does – the girl leaves her bicycle outside as she goes inside to her grandmother’s house, ready to meet the wolf. (This picturebook contains representations of pigs).
