FITCH & CHIP: WHO’S AFRAID OF GRANNY WOLF?

Fitch the wolf and Chip the pig return for a third easy-reader adventure together, this time with a humorous fractured fairy-tale twist. Hints of “The Three Little Pigs” and “Little Red Riding Hood” are cleverly inserted into the plot as Fitch takes Chip to his house to meet his grandmother. She happens to be having trouble with her false teeth (her “looong, white teeth”) and she makes several remarks that lead Chip to believe that he’s included in the dinner plans—as the featured dish. Ansley’s ink-and-watercolor illustrations add to the humor, with a delightful Granny Wolf in nightcap and shawl. Wheeler divides the story into short chapters, with each chapter revealing more ways that the wolf household differs from Chip’s house. Granny Wolf and Chip find their common ground by the concluding supper, which includes chocolate-chip pie (not “chunk of chip pie”). A humorous easy reader is always welcome, but this one also includes deliciously funny fairy-tale allusions as well as the theme of making friends with someone who is different and perhaps even downright scary. Though this makes a fine addition to a successful easy-reader series, it will also work well with fairy-tale studies in early elementary classrooms. (Easy reader. 6-8)