Beware of the Storybook Wolves
Lauren Child's Fairytale-Filled Picture Book for Young Children
Aug 15, 2008
Fans of Lauren Child will want to get their hands on everything she has ever produced. Beware of the Storybook Wolves (Hodder Children’s Books 2001, ISBN 978 0 340 77916 3) is the Bronze Medal winner of the Smarties Book Awards 2000. But, despite its popularity with people in the book industry, this is not necessarily a story for feint-hearted children.
Synopsis
Little Herb likes his mum to remove his bedtime story book at night because he is worried about the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood. On the one occasion his mum forgets, the storybook wolves come alive, ready to eat Herb.
Herb tricks the wolves, persuading them that little boys are for pudding and jelly is for starters. But in finding a jelly in another fairytale book, Herb attracts the attention of the Wicked Fairy, who makes the wolves realise their mistake. Herb wakes the Fairy Gogmother to get help. She is so cross at being awoken that she tries to turn Herb into a caterpillar but instead puts Cinderella’s ball gown on the little wolf, causing herself all sorts of worry.
As the big wolf prepares to gobble up Herb, the Fairy Godmother turns it into a caterpillar. All Herb’s mum finds in the book the next time she reads it is a caterpillar in the woods, instead of the wolf. And poor Herb sleeps on top of his books, to ensure that his characters do not escape anymore!
Comic Overtone Versus Fearsome Undercurrent
The distinctive illustrative style of Lauren Child make for an amusing set of plot highlights. The main protagonists – the wolves – are quirky and display familiar human traits with which children will undoubtedly identify, while little Herb has a reassuring and familiar appearance not unlike the now famous Charlie an Lola.
The obvious expected fierce behaviour of the wolves is played down through the writing, too. The wolves plan to eat Herb and immediately the little wolf adorns a pink ball gown. The large wolf looms, ready to gobble Herb and subsequently becomes a ridiculous caterpillar.
Even the Fairy Godmother is made fun of. Instead of being the calm, organised problem-solver, she becomes immersed in a whole heap of domestic problems, creating a rather dotty character for children to find comical.
Nevertheless, the whole concept of evil characters leaving their story pages and appearing in a child’s bedroom at night may not seem to make good reading matter for those children who are easily frightened or for whom bedtime nightmares are a regular occurrence.
Lauren Child attempts to work around this potential problem by suggesting through Herb that fairytale characters can be kept in their books by placing something heavy on them – an action which could be taken by children who are worried about the characters in their books, just as Herb is. Herb’s mother even stipulates that storybook wolves are not fierce. Has Lauren Child done enough to convince children that there is nothing to be scared of?
A Suitable Children’s Book?
As with all good children’s writers, the author brings about a satisfactory conclusion to the problems in the story. Both wolves end up in a position of diminution, either dressed in a pink dress or shrunk to the size (and shape) of a caterpillar. Children can laugh at the thought of this tiny creature trying to scare Little Red Riding Hood in the tale thereafter, with no success whatever.
As to the question of whether this book would be suitable for your child – well, the only real way to know is to sample the book for yourself. Only you will know whether your child should beware the storybook wolves.
