Wolf Espionage by Elanor Parkinson, illustrated by Dave Atze
(Redgum Book Club) PB RRP
ISBN 9780995378322
Reviewed by Dianne Bates
In 2016, the Redgum Book Club ran
an Australian-wide children’s writing competition to find a picture book text
to publish. The winner was a 12 year old girl who always wanted to publish a
book. This is it!
William the Wolf lives on
Wellwood Farm, where, despite being surrounded by much livestock, he feels
under-fed. Espionage – disguising himself as other animals -- is the way in
which he seeks out food. However, in his sheep outfit, he fails with the sheep,
and similarly with rabbits (‘they whacked him with their shovels’), and with
the squirrels which (‘pummelled him with nuts’).
Having failed so far, the cunning
wolf rethinks his strategy and subsequently goes undercover, disguising himself
as an apple and a pea. Neither, of course, attack him as the animals did.
Voila! William is transformed into a vegetarian wolf. The last double-page
coloured illustration shows William with the other animals on a picnic rug
eating fruit and vegetables.
Every one of the events which are
documented take place on a specific day of the week, from Monday through the
Saturday picnic – on Sunday the now confirmed vegetarian is ‘indeed a wolf in
beet’s clothing’ -- a clever pun on a well-known saying.
This is a simple tale which might
well have been written by an adult -- so full marks to young Elanor. The book
is well-designed and the cartoon illustrations do full credit to the text.
