The Small Good Wolf
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Cover Story
This issue’s cover is from the gift edition of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory illustrated by Quentin Blake and with design and typography by Peter Campbell. The successful collaboration between Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake has played an important part in the popularity of Dahl’s work over the last fifteen years. Blake’s unmistakable artwork truly complements Dahl’s writing. His economical, amiable, illustrative style balances out Dahl’s often expansive language. And the liveliness, humour and pathos of the drawings offer a softer side to Dahl’s sometimes gloriously grotesque, sometimes cruel descriptions of his characters.
Thanks to Penguin Children’s Books for their help in producing this July cover which commemorates the thirty years anniversary of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s first UK publication.
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The Small Good Wolf
In the folk tale tradition the wolf has long been cast as a villain and Rayner herself has perpetuated this image in some of her Pig family stories. More recently though, the wolf has been given a chance to have his say chiefly through alternative version of 'The Three Little Pigs'. Now Rayner has created a version of 'Little Red Riding Hood' which mother wolves might tell their cubs in the den: a Small Good Wolf dresses up in Grandma's clothes for fun and only dives into her bed to hide: 'What a nutter ... doesn't she know a wolf when she sees one?' he thinks when Red Riding Hood enters and speaks her well known lines; and it is only the food in her basket that the Small Good Wolf is interested in eating. We learn that the original version of the tale was invented by Grandma to preserve her reputation. The matter-of-fact retelling with its nice blend of irony and suspense, and the gently humorous water-colour illustrations make this picture book a treat to read and to share.
