Beware of the Storybook Wolves

A. Title: Beware of the Storybook Wolves

B. Author: Lauren Child

C. Illustrator: Lauren Child

D. Publisher: Scholastic Press, a division of Scholastic Inc.

E. Genre: Picture Book/Fairy Tales

F. Reading Level: k-3

G. Summary: Each night, Herb's mother reads him a story before bed. Sometimes it's Little Red Riding Hood with two scary wolves: one big one and one small one with an eye patch (the one on the book's back cover). Before his mother leaves, Herb always makes sure she takes the book with her because of the storybook wolves. In the dark, he hears the low grumbling, growling of wolves, and Herb realizes his mother accidentally left Little Red Riding Hood in his room! The wolves want to eat him, but he convinces them he is dessert and that first they need to eat an appetizer. Then, while Herb is stealing Jell-O from the fairytale book, the wicked witch inside tells the wolves Herb has tricked them. Herb then borrows Cinderella's fairy godmother to protect him. Once all the storybook creatures had been returned, Herb stacked all his books up and put his bed on top to make sure no more storybook creatures decided to come out that night!

H. Response: Beware of the Storybook Wolves has the same media types and styles as I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato, both by Lauren Child. This book also has double page spreads with most of the words worked into the pictures. Lauren Child's media style allows her books to be bright and colorful so that they're both fun to read and to look at. I thought the idea of the fairytale characters coming to life at night is great fun and a great way to introduce different fairy tales. My favorite illustration in the book was when Herb dumped Cinderella's fairy godmother onto the floor and real sequins fell out with her!

I. Teaching Ideas: Scholastic has a lesson plan for Beware of the Storybook Wolves dealing with reading comprehension and can be taught k-3. The goal of the lesson plan is for the children to make connections between the fairy tales that are present in the book, and others not included, and then the students will have the chance to create their own "fractured" fairytale; drawing paper, chart paper, and crayons and markers are all you need. Children get to draw their favorites characters or favorite parts in the story. The lesson plan really sounds like a lot of fun and something younger elementary aged students would really enjoy. I also found a website called "Fairy Tale Resources and Books" on TeacherNet that has a lot of great lesson plans and lesson resources dealing with Fairy Tales, myths, etc.