Wolfie 

Wolves – from Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs, to Peter and the Wolf, through Tolkien, C S Lewis, and Michelle Paver, hold a special place in our imagination.  Wolves run wild and free; they’re clever and dangerous; friend or foe, they bring the outside in.

The wolf at the centre of Emma Barnes’ novel is a proper storybook wolf. She has sharp teeth, glinting eyes, a silvery coat – and she can talk. Though Fang is wolf through and through, with a wolf’s eye view of the world, and a taste for rabbit that always upsets Lucie, the two are soon very good friends: as Fang points out to Lucie, ‘You and I are not just pack animals, Lucie. We think for ourselves’.

Lucie can see from the minute they meet that the new ‘pet’ her uncle has brought for her is not a dog, as he says, but a wolf. The grown-ups around her however are oblivious to this, and as Lucie and Fang get closer, the fact that adults only see what they want to see at first helps but then threatens their friendship. When hysteria about the ‘wolf-dog’ mounts and it looks as though Fang will be hounded into a zoo, the two travel to a Wolf Meet for advice from wise old Silver Paw.  He directs them to look for help closer to home, and the day is saved by Lucie’s next door neighbour – little old lady, Professor Emeritus of Zoology and wolf expert!

There is much to enjoy in this funny, clever and very satisfying story, and lots to think about and discuss too.  While being completely of the present, it feels quite timeless.  Illustrations throughout by Emma Chichester Clark add to the classic feel.  Thoroughly recommended.