The Little Wolves

Gr 1-3–For a pack of young wolves, life is filled with moments of danger and discovery. One night, Mama Wolf goes out to hunt, leaving her four cubs asleep and safely tucked away in their cave. However, when one of the cubs awakens and smells the forest air wafting to her nose, she becomes intrigued and decides to investigate. Her siblings follow suit, and they venture out of the cave for the first time on their own. After a day of wandering and a narrow escape from a hunter, the wolf cubs find their way home and are chastised by their worried mother before settling in to sleep. Translated from its original Swiss, this book tells the story in a folkloric style. The text appears in large blocks on the left side of each spread while a large and engaging illustration fills the right. Illustrations utilize soft lines and watercolor splotches to depict each object, lending an old-fashioned feel to the tale. The muted colors of the watercolor images encapsulate the feeling of a chilly woodland landscape as well as the varied emotions of this waylaid wolf pack. Designed for elementary school–aged readers, the wolves’ exploits showcase the emerging independence young children are also experiencing in a way that is at once accessible and educational.