Wolfboy by Andy Harkness

Wolfboy is hungry, very hungry and as the pages proceed he becomes very hungry indeed. He stomps around in the woods beneath the full moon yelling for rabbits. He searches through the murky creek, now huffy as well as hungry. He climbs up the creaky old oak still needing rabbits. He is now hungry and huffy and drooly, but no rabbits can be found. He becomes hungry and huffy, drolly and growly in his search for the rabbits, but even as he goes through the soggy bog, he cannot find them.

Each double page tell us where Wolfboy is looking for the rabbits, and repeats the words describing his emotional state as he cannot find them. But the readers can find them, they will see them on each page and call out for Wolfboy to turn around or look under the tree or under the lily pad. Readers will have a great time with this funny book, following Wolfboy’s obsession with finding rabbits to curb his appetite.

A neat solution rounds off this engrossing book, enabling the rabbits to survive the suspected onslaught of a hungry Wolfboy.

The illustrations are engrossing and details about how they were created appears on the publication page. It is worth reading to the kids as it will encourage them to look more closely at each image on every page, seeing how each of the pieces was built from clay, and then photographed. A video clip of Harkness showing how he created the images is available.

This book is a wonderful read aloud, encouraging adult and listener to put on voices, to stomp around the floor, to call out the words describing his hunger and then his eating of the moonberries, while participating in the reading and asking for it to be read again.

A promotion for the book making it come to life can be found here. 

Themes: Imagination, Collage, Hunger, Humour, Read aloud.

Fran Knight