Book Recommendations — Children's

Another wonderful book my Six Year Old Test Reader enjoyed this summer is Wolves by Emily Gravett. The story is very simple—a rabbit gets a book on wolves from the library, and in the course of reading the book, the wolf gradually emerges from the book and enjoys a rabbit snack (or perhaps not, if you believe the alternate ending.) The two levels of the story are brought to life in the illustrations—we see both the book the rabbit is reading and the growing presence of the wolf.

I liked the Guardian's summary of the book . . .

Gravett's engagingly self-deprecating wit comes through in the humour of her children's books. Wolves, which tells the tale of a rabbit who reads a book on wolves and gets a nasty surprise at the end (or not, if you read the alternative ending thoughtfully provided for "more sensitive readers"), is full of the sort of wordplay that will appeal to children at the top of the intended age group, while the drawings of the wolves contain just the right amount of storybook menace to send a delicious shiver up the spine of younger ones.

The book won the Kate Greenaway Medal in 2005—a UK award for distinguished illustration in a book for children, and it was shortlisted for the 2005 Nestlé Children's Book Prize for the five and under category (the prize that was won by another book we've recommended—Lost and Found.)

In announcing the list of winners for the Kate Greenaway Medal, the organizers wrote that Wolves is a . . .

. . . real page-turner of a book. The style is spare, but at the same time there is so much in it, and the device whereby the book becomes the book within it is brilliantly employed. The illustrator’s style is totally unique, and the love and attention to detail here is obvious, even down to her having chewed the book herself to get the right effect.

In a review of the book, J. D. Biersdorfer from the New York Times noted . . .

What makes “Wolves” most entertaining, however, is its design. Gravett uses an eye-catching collage of hand-drawn sketches and photography to create a kind of a modern trompe l’oeil effect — complete with 3-D shadows and playful shifts in scale and perspective of the rabbit and the wolves he’s reading about. The bunny reads until he gets to the line “They also enjoy smaller mammals, like beavers, voles and ... rabbits.” A scarred book cover on the next page doesn’t leave much doubt about the harsh reality of the food chain, but for sensitive readers Gravett includes an alternate happy ending of interspecies friendship and shared jam sandwiches.

And no worries that our penguin theme is over—the Guardian hints that Gravett's next book will involve penquins:

In her light-filled attic studio with its stunning view across the rolling South Downs, drawings of penguins seem to fill every surface, evidence of work in progress on book number four.