The Story: What’s the Time, Mr Wolf? is the story of a day in the life of Mr Wolf and the interaction that he has with his friends. Each hour brings him into contact with different fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters, for example Little Red Riding Hood who delivers the post or the cat playing his fiddle. At the end of the day Mr Wolf returns home to find that his friends have thrown a surprise birthday party for him.
My daughter is fascinated by wolves in stories (as long as they are not scary!) She is also very interested in clocks and time so this is the perfect book for her right now. It is a lovely story to share with a child as there is so much in the beautifully illustrated pictures to talk (and giggle!) about, we notice new details every time we read it. The familiar characters have been cleverly incorporated into the story which also makes it fun for adults to read and provides an opportunity to revisit other fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Repetition also makes it a good book for children to join in with telling the story.
I heard Debi Gliori speak at a SCBWI conference last weekend where, along with her art director, she explained the process of writing and illustrating ‘What’s the Time Mr Wolf?’. It was very interesting to see original sketches and hear about the changes in artwork and characters that were made before the book was finally published. She also drew my attention to details that I had missed (Can you spot what is in the glass by Mr Wolf’s bed?!).
Age Range: 4 +
Author / Illustrator: Debi Gliori
I also like ‘The Trouble with Dragons’, a lovely story for smaller children but also a great book to stimulate discussion with older children about looking after the planet.
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