The Sheep in Wolf's Clothing by Bob Hartman
| The Sheep in Wolf's Clothing by Bob Hartman | |
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| Category: For Sharing | |
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Reviewer: Lorraine McDonald
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| Summary: A lamb rejects her sheep background when she decides to go to Wolf school. All goes well until she accepts an invitation to dinner from Little Wolf. Find out how what happens next in this fairy tale mash up. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 32 | Date: June 2014 |
| Publisher: Lion Children's Books | |
| ISBN: 9780745965154 | |
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From the Montagues and the Capulets to the Sharks and the Jets, there are some groups who just can't mix without fireworks resulting. A sheep making friends with a Wolf was never going to end well. The Sheep in Wolf's Clothing tells the tale of one little lamb who decides to go to Wolf school. She's bored of the day to day routine of being a sheep. The daily dips, the badminton playing, the endless knitting. Mum's knitting comes in handy though as a wolf suit flies off her needles. This enables Little Sheep, suitably disguised, to trot off to Wolf School and learn that it's ok to be friends with someone who is outwardly quite different to yourself...
The Sheep in Wolf's Clothing, is in the genre of fairy tale twists. There are elements of the Three Little Pigs, with a dash of Aesop and, of course, a corruption of the saying 'a wolf in sheep's clothing'. Quite a lot for the average tot to draw on there to fully appreciate the humour of the book. This perhaps pitches the tale towards the slightly older scale of the picture book audience. Younger, less erudite, children will still be entertained. However, I always feel it's a bit cynical to twist a tale for an audience who don't know the original tale that is being twisted and I feel a bit uncomfortable talking over innocent heads. The real littlies may also find some of the action a bit macabre too. In the parlance of children's film classification I would say 'this book contains mild peril and violence'. A head in the freezer that is definitely not cabbage. Chips that are made of cousin Chip. And a bowl of Stu… The joke about what a vegetarian is might need some explaining even to the older ones.
The illustrations put me in mind of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are with their cross hatching shading. Little Sheep's expressions are always a joy and there are some nice visual jokes that start on the very first page as Little Sheep exuberantly puts a hole through a badminton net much to her parent's alarm. She clearly doesn't know her own strength and who knew that badminton was a sheep pass time? The animal's clothes hark back to 1930's fashion. Plus fours for Papa Sheep, a Charleston style dress for sister sheep and a wide boy's outfit of spats, a bowler hat, flashy trousers and waistcoat for Father Wolf. Good fun.
Not so good fun is the text unless I'm missing the joke here. This is a wordy picture book which could make it a good choice for early readers. However, the font isn't the clearest and the text is peppered with bold. In a larger font. Occasionally this looks to be for emphasis, but just as often it seems random. I may be over sensitive to this as I read A Sheep In Wolf's Clothing coming fresh from another book that purposely avoids such conceits as they apparently deter and confuse reluctant readers (children AND their parents) and can apparently impede dyslexics. This aside, it just smacks of trying too hard to be original and witty.
'The Sheep In Wolf's Clothing is a good read for the slightly older child. It's edgy humour and witty illustrations will appeal to many. There's a clear moral to the story for children about how to handle being different. Perhaps just as important is the lesson to all that it is best to ask exactly what is on the menu before accepting an invitation to dinner.
For more 'twists', this time on nursery rhymes, take a look at The Great Nursery Rhyme Disaster by David Conway and Melanie Williamson.
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Sheep in Wolf's Clothing by Bob Hartman at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy The Sheep in Wolf's Clothing by Bob Hartman at Amazon.com.
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