The Wolves in the Walls: Dave McKean, Neil Gaiman

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I could go on and on about this book, but I will just sum up by saying: art is great, writing is great, story is fun and interesting and great for dramatic outloud readings, and the story is an excellent lesson in the silliness of childhood fears.

Nothing in Lucy’s world is solid – expect perhaps Lucy, who is represented by a delicately carved wooden puppet. The series has won every major industry award including nine Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, three Harvey Awards, and the 1991 World Fantasy Award for best short story, making it the first comic ever to win a literary award. I had the idea of reading this when my buddy-reader made me read the Lovecraft story with a very similar title. Lucy believes that there are wolves living in the walls of her house, but her family doesn’t believe her! Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License and the GFDL; additional terms may apply.As Lucy questions whether or not to tell her family about the elephants, she talks to her pig-puppet. Many of the popular sayings can be viewed in this light, and it is important for children to begin questioning the validity of such statements simply because something is asserted as the truth does not make it any less of a belief. If your class or school is having to close for a while, these materials provide a home dimension as well as a clear route map outlining what to teach online, and what to practise at home.

I find Neil Gaiman to be at his strongest when approaching dark fairy tales that are aimed for children but are equally enjoyable as adults, and his picture book Wolves in the Walls is a perfect example. Throughout the book nobody believes Lucy but continuously quotes an old saying about when the wolves come out, it’s all over. PBS Kids’ set of resources for talking to young children about race and racism might also be useful for educators. The end piece is designed to be a descriptive nightmare where the child experienced it learns what to do in their life after they wake up. She hears scratching and nibbling in the walls and is convinced that the noises are coming from the wolves.The metaphysical question of what reality is also playing a big role in this book, as the reader begins to wonder whether what Lucy’s parents say is more believable than what her brother or Lucy says is true.

McKean uses a combination of collage, photography, painting and drawing, with a palette of deep reds and browns, to set the scene for this frightening tale. A self-confessed “feral kid who was raised in libraries”, Author of the Month Neil Gaiman, spent much of his childhood devouring the books of J. In the end the things that seem so scary (monsters under the bed, etc) are silly things that can be defeated with a simple look. It is pure imagination expressed in picture book form, being both whimsical and frightening and written in a way that feels like an old fairy tale you think you should already know.He has illustrated and designed several children's books, including eight with Neil: Coraline, The Wolves in the Walls, The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, Varjak Paw with SF Said (winner of the Smarties Gold award in 2004), Mirrormask, The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr Punch, Signal to Noise and Crazy Hair.