Picture Book - What's The Time, Mr Wolf?- Debi Glior (Author & Illustrator)
Recommended for: Babies/Toddlers/Younger Readers
You might be expecting a grizzly fairy tale when first picking this book up - after all, as far as I'm concerned, the title refers to a game we used to play at primary school where whoever played the wolf tried to eat everyone else (not literally. I don't think. Some children are strange). However, there's a great twist at the end of this book that marks it out as different from the norm.
Every hour, from 7am to 6pm, Mr Wolf encounters another fairy tale character (or characters) causing him problems as he tries to go about his day. Despite the early threats to eat the Three Little Pigs (mainly because he's tired and grumpy), it turns out that all the dashing around that everyone has been doing is in preparation for a party at Mr Wolf's house, and that in fact everyone is the best of friends. Children will lap up this ending, because it'll be the last thing they expect.
Adults will appreciate some of the humour (his cupboard is bare as the dish ran away with the spoon), as well as feeling sympathy at being woken early. The illustrations are great, and you end up wishing they had told it over 24 hours instead of 12, so you could have seen Mr Wolf interact with more fairy tale characters.
A great book this one. Make sure you check it out (both figuratively and from your local library).
9/10
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