The Wolves in the Walls

 

By Neil Gaiman

Illustrated by Dave McKean

The Wolves in the Walls is very typical of Neil Gaiman's style.  It is a tale of Lucy, a young girl who is perhaps a bit too imaginative.  One day, she begins to hear noises in the walls. She tells her mother that there are wolves in the walls.  Her mother tells her that it's just mice, "For you know what they say... If the wolves come out of the walls, then it's all over."  "What's all over," asked Lucy?"  "It," said her mother.  "Everybody knows that."  The next day, Lucy tells her father that there are wolves in the walls, but he doesn't believe her either.  He tells her it's rats.  Still, Lucy is convinced that there are wolves in the walls!  Lucy goes to her brother.  Unsurprisingly, he thinks the noise in the wall is just some tiny bats.

Until one day... the wolves come out of the walls!  The family escapes and spends days camping out in the garden.  But determined little Lucy is unhappy with the situation, and hatches a plan to re-claim their house from the wolves.  They sneak into the walls of the house, and one day they sneak out and scare all of the wolves away.  The frightened wolves flee and are never to be seen again.  And everything is back to normal... until one day, Lucy hears noises that sound exactly like elephants in the walls...

This book is strange and, truth be told, quite scary.  McKean's wonderful illustrations are dark and dramatic, only adding to the effect of the surreal story.  The text changes sizes and varies between white and black, creating stark contrasts with the illustrations of the book.  I always love when stories do not fit the standard "form" of picture books, because it makes things much more interesting and exciting.  Additionally, the story is very imaginative and sure to thrill most children.  This would be a very excellent story to bring up a discussion about confronting your fears.  Although Lucy is the smallest in her family, and even though nobody believes her stories... when her fears do come true she is the only one who is brave enough to face the problem.