There Is No Big Bad Wolf In This Story; Lou Carter, illustrated by Deborah Allwright

You’ve heard of the game ‘What’s the time Mr. Wolf’, right? Well the Wolf in this story clearly has no idea what the time is as he is always late and no one is happy about it.

On no, Wolf is late again and the other fairytale characters are not impressed. There’s no time for blowing down houses and Little Red’s Grandma is getting tired of waiting for Wolf to arrive. After the Three Little Pigs get grumpy with Wolf, he decides that he has had enough. There’ll be no more Big Bad Wolf. No one is worried though, I mean, how hard can huffing and puffing and frightening grandmas be? But Big Bad Wolfing is a lot harder than it looks and soon everyone is desperately trying to twist wolf’s paw and persuade him to come back…

Starring plenty of instantly recognisable characters, children will delight in this fresh twist on classic fairytales. It is bursting with bright artwork, a funny storyline and includes messages on teamwork and valuing others.

It is easy to sympathise with Wolf’s situation. We’ve all been there, trying to do much, needing to be in two places at once, trying to meet the expectations and demands of others. We perhaps don’t all have the luxury to handle things quite the way Wolf does but I love his attitude. Tired and over-worked, Wolf decides to go on strike from his wolfing ways and partakes in some rest and recuperation as he swaps huffing and puffing for fishing and picnicking down on the bank of the river.

Fairytales need a happy ending and it isn’t long before the Three Little Pigs, the Gingerbread family and the others realise that life without Wolf is not quite as easy as they had imagined. And after ill-fated attempts at trying to fix the situation, Wolf is soon having his paw twisted and being asked to come back to do those things that he does best. There are even some helping trotters on hand to make sure that Wolf is never late again.

With huge thanks to Bloomsbury for this great story.

Recommended for 3+.