Wolf Won't Bite!

January 9, 2012
Gravett (Blue Chameleon) lets three watercolor-and-pencil circus pigs do the storytelling as they capture a wolf and trot it through an embarrassing series of performances, pushing it right to the edge of its wolfly patience. “I can stand him on a stool!” the pompous ringmaster pig says while the wolf poses obediently, holding up a paw. “I can dress him in a bow,” says a pig in a tutu, the wolf adorned with an enormous red ribbon. “I can ride him like a horse,” says the third pig, who wears a strongman’s suit and balances on the wolf’s back, “but Wolf won’t bite!” he proclaims, concluding with three staccato syllables that children will quickly learn to shout in chorus. Delicious circus-style lettering marches across the pages as the pigs grow ever bolder with the wolf. The black, white, and red palette recalls Ian Falconer’s Olivia, and the pigs have some of her in-your-face bombast, but it’s Gravett’s wolf who’s the sympathetic character in this case. Readers who see themselves as pushed and prodded by similarly obnoxious adults will let out a sigh of relief when the wolf rebels. Ages 2–6.

January 1, 2012
Three carny pigs push a patient wolf too far in Gravett's latest. On the opening endpapers, three pigs with a net chase a wolf. Soon they're pasting up a circus poster trumpeting, "The Three Pigs Proudly Present WOLF WON'T BITE!" One pig wears a ringmaster jacket, one a tutu and one a weightlifter's leotard. In elaborate and ever-shifting display types, they crow, "Roll up! Roll up! Roll up! We have caught a wild wolf!" The wolf, looking dubious, sticks his head out of an old-fashioned wheeled circus cage. White space surrounds the animals, showing no context beyond props. Oil-based pencil sharpens and details red, pink and gray watercolor (the tutu's yellow-white). These pigs are barkers, announcing each trick as they do it. They ride the wolf like a horse; they throw knives at him. When they shoot him from a cannon, he rockets from the back-middle of the left page right off the spread's front right corner, about to smash into readers. Subtlety is conveyed in the wolf's priceless expressions (doubtful, apprehensive) and the question of why the pigs are so cocksure, repeatedly boasting, "WOLF WON'T BITE!" Their hubris whets readers' expectations: Surely the pigs go too far? The punch line's not a bite, but it's a welcome turnaround--and don't miss the closing endpapers. A slightly cryptic but satisfying wolf/pig reversal. (Picture book. 2-5)

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March 1, 2012

PreS-K-Wolf is the underdog in Gravett's story about three bigwig circus pigs. The tuxedoed ringmaster, muscle-shirted strongman, and tutu-clad acrobat have gone hunting with a huge butterfly net and caught a large, unkempt gray wolf. With hoopla and dramatic typeface, the pigs put him through his paces: "I can make him jump through hoops!" "I can shoot him through the air!" "I can lift him off the ground!" "I can make him dance a jig..." but (to quote the confident refrain) "WOLF WON'T BITE!" Truly, the creature looks more perplexed and put-upon than fierce through most of these trials. Gravett's watercolor and oil pencil illustrations, which have the endearingly old-fashioned simplicity of a circus poster, feature three plucky, competitive pigs who take no notice of their star attraction's facial expressions. Readers, though, can't help wondering whether it's time to start worrying. Wolf Won't Bite! is an entertaining and original spin on the old wolf-and-pigs theme. It will delight children.-Susan Weitz, formerly at Spencer-Van Etten School District, Spencer, NY

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