An empowering retelling of Little Red Riding Hood about challenging the traditional narratives we are told, with a confident, autistic character at its heart.

Gina Kaminski is here to tell you three facts.

1 – Little Red Riding Hood is full of BIG mistakes.
2 – She is off to fairy tale land to fix them.
3 – She WILL save the wolf.

Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? Certainly not Gina as she takes the narrative lead and tells the story in her own distinctive way. With fantastic illustrations from Francis Martin, and an innovative use of pictorial emoji language, this is the ideal book to empower every child to be the hero of their own story.

Gina Kaminski Saves the Wolf is a children’s picture book featuring an autistic main character, Gina. The book is told from Gina’s POV and shows what she feels about her school, the library, and Little Red Riding Hood with the help of emojis.

Gina believes that the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood has three mistakes in it and she will explain them to you.

I adored this book. Being the mum of an autistic adult I could see a lot of my son within the book. I love the way autistic people’s minds work and so it was wonderful to see this emphasised and showcased in this story.

The book is highly illustrated with full-page images that bring the story to life. It was entertaining to read and I found myself immersed within the pages and agreeing with some of Gina’s reasonings. I’m glad she gets to save the wolf as I love wolves and they get a bad rep in children’s books.

Overall, Gina Kaminski Saves the Wolf is an amazing picture book that is funny, imaginative, and engaging.

Craig Barr-Green writes picturebooks, non fiction and theatre for children. He lectures Children’s Literature for Falmouth University and is a seasoned children’s bookseller. He often performs storytelling shows at festivals, and set up the SLT publishing company Clickety Books. Craig is a passionate advocate for children’s literacy and neurodivergent representation.