Woolvs in the Sitee

Author:  Margaret Wild

Illustrator: Anne Spudvilas

Peach’s Picks Rating:

 

Year of publication: 2007

City of publication: Asheville, North Carolina

Publisher: Front Street

ISBN: 978-1-59078-500-3

Author website: No website available. Information can be obtained from http://us.macmillan.com/author/margaretwild

Illustrator website: http://www.annespudvilas.com/ 

Media used for illustrations: Charcoal on paper, charcoal and colored ink, charcoal and colored markers

Annotation: Ben, a teenage boy, no longer has a family. He lives alone in a nearly abandoned apocalyptic city where "woolvs" haunt him. Terrified, he turns to a kindly neighbor her help.

Personal reaction to the book: This unsettling picturebook is set in an apocalyptic, nearly deserted city. Ben, the narrator, is a teenage boy who fears the “woolvs” lurking in the shadows outside. Now living alone in a basement, he makes reference to once having had a happy family. Ben is afraid to go outside. He depends on Mrs. Radinski, his neighbor, to be his comfort. But, can the “woolvs” be stopped? He bravely makes his way out of the building to face the terrors and invokes the reader to do the same saying, “Joyn me.” The book reads like a free-verse poem. The writer uses phonetic spelling to show that due to apocalyptic conditions, Ben’s education has fallen behind; for example, “She dusn’t unnerstand abowt the woolvs. She thinks I’m torking abowt those lulvlee wyld creechis, running in the woods. That’s not wot I meens” (page 10).” I suggest the phonetic spelling and lack of education would be strengthened if the contraction marks were not included. The type set chosen emphasizes the feeling of the world being off balance. The “woolvs” represent unknown terrors and predators that have taken over the city, much like the symbolism in The Arrival by Shaun Tan where evil is illustrated by a dragon’s tail snaking through the city. The forceful lines of the drawings that are off balance and the dark colors splashed with reds and orange create a mood of trepidation, isolation and fear. The entire book is an excellently executed package. The story, book design, and the illustrations combine to make this a frightening, haunting book.

General curricular connections:

• Dystopian societies
• Apocalyptic societies
• Fear
• Orphans
• War
• Use with:

Coraline by Neil Gaiman (both the novel or the graphic novel)

Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Recommended grade levels:

School Library Journal recommends this book for use with grades 6-9

Booklist recommends this book for use with grades 6-9

Peach’s Picks recommends this book for use with grades 6 and up

Awards/Recognitions:

Horn Book starred review

Kirkus Review starred review

Aurealis Award, Children’s Short Story, 2006

Note: This book is included in LIBR 271A list of “Other books receiving Top Ten votes, Summer 2009”

Repetition: Page 3; The text is repeated on the walls in the background

Symbolism: Page 3; Framed pictures of the main character with his family, symbolize that he used to have a family

Symbolism: Woolvs (wolves) symbolizes hate and hostilities

Simile: Page 32; “It is now as dark as the sky at midnite…”

Book cover picture retrieved from http://www.boydsmillspress.com/books/front-street/woolvs-sitee