WOLVES

With a nod to David Wiesner’s classic, The Three Pigs (2001), newcomer Gravett creates a postmodern story that can easily be enjoyed by a less sophisticated audience. A rabbit checks out a book of information on wolves from the library. As he reads, absorbed, he fails to notice a wolf stepping out of the book, ever larger and more menacing. Wolves “have bushy tails,” reads Rabbit, while trodding unaware on the wolf’s tail. The wolf creeps up on the feckless bunny until Rabbit comes upon the information that wolves eat rabbits! The rabbit is bug-eyed with alarm, while the consummate page-turn reveals the library book clawed to shreds . . . the rabbit gone. Never fear, delicate readers, there is an alternate ending in which the rabbit and the wolf, who is a vegetarian, share a sandwich. Like many postmodern picture books, the mixed-media illustrations call attention to the book itself, and establish an ironic relationship between the deadpan text and the endearingly expressive rabbit stalked by the slavering wolf. Brilliant fun. (Picture book. 5-8)