The Wolf's Story

A ‘piggy-back’ novel written by Toby Forward and Izhar Cohen, The Wolf’s Story is a defamiliarising children’s picture book that explores the well-known story of Little Red Riding Hood from the wolf’s perspective. About to embark on a course in Children’s Literature at uni, you may find that a fair few children’s and young adult’s are being reviewed for some time. Bear with me guys! 

Once upon a time there was a friendly wolf that helped an old lady with odd jobs around the house. He did the shopping, mended clothes, tended the garden, he did everything for her. But when the old woman’s granddaughter would come to visit, both Grandma and Red would ignore the wolf completely. Red would bring toffees for Grandma and Grandma didn’t have the heart to tell her that they made her false teeth stick together. One day the wolf tried to tell Red the truth, but Red just ignored him and when the wolf came back, Grandma had a fall and knocked herself out. Fearful of being blamed, the wolf pretended to be Grandma until she woke up… we all know what happened next. 

Maybe this is just me talking because I remember growing up reading the books of Roald Dahl, but I found this to be absolutely unbelievable and I would definitely not like my kids to be raised on it. Even the picture books that I remember from my childhood were better: Supermoo by Babette Cole, The Sign of the Seahorse by Graham Base, Pish, Posh, Said Hirronymus Bosch by Nancy Willard, Tiger Tom and the Stolen Sapphires and The Fairy Book by Shirley Barber, Koalas in Beeoria by Victoria Roberts, Enoch the Emu by Gordon Winch, The Leaping Llama Carpet by Marian Waller; not only did these tales have enchanting original stories but they were beautifully illustrated as well! 

As a picture book, The Wolf’s Story struck me as just being downright confusing and conflicting. Children are meant to sympathise with the wolf, like the wolf better, and in a number of pictures it’s hard to because of the way the wolf is depicted. He always wears an unhappy expression on his face, there are a number of still-threatening pictures of the wolf, and basically each picture is just conflicting with what the story is telling us, hence the tale’s unbelievability. 

The narration tries too hard to establish a different voice for the wolf and it comes across as being forced; obviously this book is supposed to be read aloud so that all the appropriate feelings are conveyed through the reading parent’s voice, but still it’s hard to read a book in a way if you don’t believe in it yourself. 

At the end of the day I describe this book as weak. It’s using characters from a classic tale and trying to re-adapt the story, but as it aims itself as such a young readership, it sort of falls down as it does it. Filled with pictures, which are actually rather decent illustrations, just confusing a bit, action, drama, intertextuality and attempted humour, The Wolf’s Story is not a book that I’ll read to my kids. I’m sticking with my classics and Roald Dahl thank you!