Module 9: Where's the Big Bad Wolf

 Book Summary: Detective Doggedly is always trying to catch the Big Bad Wolf in the act of terrorizing the three little pigs. When the wolf is in the hospital with the flu, there is still someone huffing and puffing at the pig's house. There is also a new sheep in town giving the pigs some bad advice about how to build their homes. Finally, Doggedly figures out it is just the wolf in sheep's clothing causing problems.

APA Reference of Book:Christelow, E. (2002). Where's the big bad wolf?. New York: Clarion Books.

Impressions: I really liked the language of this book, it had a lot of personality which made this a fun read. As an adult, I was easily able to recognize the wolf in sheep's clothing so there wasn't much mystery but children would most likely enjoy it more. I didn't really like that the illustrations were done with dialogue bubbles in them. I kept jumping back and forth between the text and the the speech bubbles thinking it would provide additional information, but as far as I could tell, it did not. I understood why the illustrator had done it but I would have preferred either text or dialogue bubbles, not both.

 
Professional Review:

Three little pigs get some real bad advice from a wolf in a real goofy sheep disguise in this comical whodunit. The three little pigs are having their homes blown down—and escaping by the hair of their chinny-chin-chins—and Detective Doggedly believes it might be the work of the shiftless, no-account neighborhood wolf, the infamous BBW. But the only character found at the crime scenes is a newcomer to town: Esmeralda the sheep. Sure, kids will note, Esmeralda their foot, for her disguise is pretty transparent. She has also been giving the pigs construction ideas: straw is good, twigs are good, and cardboard’s not bad. Two cows suggest a brick house, which foils the wolf and ends in his unveiling and incarceration. Short-term incarceration, that is, as he’s soon back, this time tricked out as a horse, with more self-serving recommendations: “Pick peas after midnight, when everybody is asleep. They’ll taste sweeter.” So what if there are a few inexplicables here—How did the wolf con his way into that hospital bed?—this is good clownish fun, and the rough-and-tumble art keeps the farce bubbling. (Picture book. 4-7)

[Review of the book Where’s the big bad wolf? by E. Christelow]. (2002, July 15). Kirkus Reviews, 70(14), 1028. Retrieved from http://www.kirkusreviews.com

Library Uses: This would be used for an early childhood mystery program where the children have to come and solve a mystery or scavenger hunt that solves the mystery.