The Wolves in the Walls
by Neil Gaiman (Dave McKean, Illustrator)

reviewed by Byron Merritt

Lucy is a young girl living with her family in a house that manifests odd sounds in its walls. Her father -- preoccupied with his tuba playing -- swears the noises are caused by mice or rats. Her mother -- busying herself with bottling jam -- agrees that it is an insect or animal. Lucy's little brother -- the high score champ on all the house's video games -- thinks it might be bats. But Lucy is sure that the bumps and bangs behind the walls are caused by wolves. "Not possible," they all say. "Because if it were wolves, IT would all be over."

It is soon discovered, however, that there ARE wolves in the walls, and they erupt into Lucy and her parents' house one night, chasing them out of their home and taking over the residence. The only item to make it out of the house was her father's primary tuba. Lucy's pig puppet, her mothers jams and foodstuffs, and her brothers video games are still in the house. And Lucy sneaks back up to find the wolves taking advantage of all these items (and even abusing her father's "secondary" tuba).

The family soon tires of spending nights out in the garden and decide to take back their home. The ending is fun and enjoyable.

The story is light, non-bloody, and very enjoyable. Depending on your children's level of understanding, this might be a very fun book for them. Mainly for two reasons... One, it shows how a child can have power within her family and become a hero (even though this story is fictional). Two, the graphic images portrayed by artist Dave McKean are interesting, fresh and original.

I've read other reviews and one of them said that this story might be "Too scary to read to a child." I disagree. There's no bloodshed, or gore, or excess violence. I think a child would be more frightened by what they read in a newspaper or see on the nightly news rather than by THIS book.

A+ children's story and graphics.  A good read aloud story for the elementary school child.