WHEN A WOLF IS HUNGRY

Lone wolf Edmond Bigsnout sets off from his country home to kill and eat a “city bunny”—and becomes enmeshed in a life-altering adventure.

From the start, the text and the masterful, mixed-media artwork are both funny and suspenseful. The elegantly dressed wolf strides across the autumn-tree–studded initial pages, sharp knife in carefully manicured paw, as he heads for his urban craving: “a grain-fed, silky-haired rabbit, one with just a hint of sweetness.” The wolf rides his bike to the city, soon finding an apartment building with a promising tenant for his culinary desires: “Max Omatose, miniature rabbit, 5th floor.” In his haste to reach said floor, Edmond leaves his knife in the elevator, where it is soon appropriated by a third-floor turkey. Edmond pedals back to the country, this time grabbing his chain saw. Each time he arrives with a different sinister tool, some other resident, thinking Edmond is a new tenant, gratefully borrows the tool. (Edmond may be bloodthirsty, but he is unfailingly polite.) By the time he has lugged a barbecue to the apartment house, the hungry lone wolf is greeted by the most come-hither–looking lupine lady in picture-book history: Miss Eyestopper. Edmond is still determined to eat that rabbit, but fate steps in and ensures a happy ending for everyone.

As funny and as exquisitely put together as Edmond Bigsnout himself.