How Do These Books Make Their Way Through The Publishers?

We love books.  We have a ton of them.  Whenever relatives ask for suggestions for birthday or Christmas gifts, I ALWAYS recommend books.

My five year old is just starting to read and write simple sentences.  Most days, he brings a phonics story book home from school and reads it to us at bedtime before we read more complex stories to him.  But I proudly digress...

My older child is now at school and I was just reading to the toddler.  I selected an early reader that had been a gift for my older child's recent birthday.  The title?  Little Red Riding Hood.  The picture on the cover is sort of Raggedy-Anne styled, with little circles on Red's cheeks making her look doll-like.  Seemed harmless enough.  I was thinking this would be like Sesame Street's take on the Three Little Pigs, where they're all friends at the end.  So I started reading it to my toddler.

Good thing I always mentally read one sentence ahead, because I was able to imperceptibly edit the following for my very alert two year old:

• On page 17, the wolf ate Grandma in one big bite.  
• On page 24, he ate Red, too.  
• On page 26, a woodcutter took an axe and cut open the wolf's belly and pulled out Grandma and Red.  
• On page 27, Red, Grandma and the woodcutter had tea - outside of Grandma's house, since I'm guessing there was a big mess inside.

The back of the book says, among other things that "First Readers are ideal for... reading alone."  Yeah. I don't think so.  This book is going to the same place where the cute cowboy book that included a graphic scene of branding cows is going - to the dark, dusty shelf at the top of the toy closet.

Good grief.  How do these things make their way through the publishers?