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Summary
Summary
"Gaiman does here for the older picture-book set what he did for middle-grade readers with Coraline." --Kirkus (starred review)
Lucy is sure there are wolves living in the walls of their house--and, as everybody says, if the wolves come out of the walls, it's all over. Her family doesn't believe her. Then one day, the wolves come out.
But it's not all over. Instead, Lucy's battle with the wolves is only just beginning.
There are sneaking, creeping, crumpling noises coming from inside the walls...
This New York Times Best Illustrated Book combines a deliciously creepy tale, a strong heroine, and a happy ending in a package that only Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean could have created.
Author Notes
Neil Gaiman was born in Portchester, England on November 10, 1960. He worked as a journalist and freelance writer for a time, before deciding to try his hand at comic books. Some of his work has appeared in publications such as Time Out, The Sunday Times, Punch, and The Observer. His first comic endeavor was the graphic novel series The Sandman. The series has won every major industry award including nine Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, three Harvey Awards, and the 1991 World Fantasy Award for best short story, making it the first comic ever to win a literary award.
He writes both children and adult books. His adult books include The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which won a British National Book Awards, and the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel for 2014; Stardust, which won the Mythopoeic Award as best novel for adults in 1999; American Gods, which won the Hugo, Nebula, Bram Stoker, SFX, and Locus awards; Anansi Boys; Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances; and The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction, which is a New York Times Bestseller. His children's books include The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish; Coraline, which won the Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla, the BSFA, the Hugo, the Nebula, and the Bram Stoker awards; The Wolves in the Walls; Odd and the Frost Giants; The Graveyard Book, which won the Newbery Award in 2009 and The Sandman: Overture which won the 2016 Hugo Awards Best Graphic Story.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
"If the wolves come out of the walls, it's all over," is the oft-repeated prediction in Gaiman's latest, a picture book that cleverly balances humor and spookiness in a slightly off-kilter setting. As he did in his novel Coraline, the author again introduces an inquisitive girl who lives in a creepy old house with her distracted family. When Lucy hears "squeaking, creeping, crumpling noises" from inside the house's walls, she's convinced it must be wolves. Lucy's parents and younger brother, who don't share Lucy's sharply attuned ear, but have heard bad things about wolves in people's walls, insist any noise must be emanating from something more logical, like rats or mice. But when Lucy's hunch comes true, the family flees-until brave, determined Lucy hatches a plan to turn the tables. Gaiman's text rings with energetic confidence and an inviting tone, even as he leads readers into a bizarre and potentially spine-tingling scenario. McKean (who previously collaborated with Gaiman on the Sandman comics and The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish) expertly matches the tale's funny-scary mood. Lucy shines as a heroine, standing tall among somewhat tuned-out supporting characters that are an inventive mixture of ordinary and odd. Against shadow-filled backdrops that blend paint, digital manipulation and photography, his stylized human figures look right at home. His pen-and-inks of the wolves, often with a judicious dash of color, suggest that they inhabit a world apart-or perhaps unreal? Author and artist credit their audience with the intelligence to puzzle out the question for themselves. All ages. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
No one in Lucy's family believes her when she says that she hears wolves inside the walls of their house, but of course she ends up being right. The story is wholly original, and there's no denying the care taken with the mixed-media illustrations. But the book proves overwritten, and the brooding images, featuring sympathetic human characters with dot eyes set on otherwise realistic faces, seem gratuitously creepy. From HORN BOOK Spring 2004, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Gr. 3-6. Gaiman's picture book about one little girl's prescient concern for the sanctity of her home is visually realized through collage and other multimedia images that match the sometimes dark, fantastical story, tone for tone. Lucy is the first to hear wolves in the walls of her house, but her family, each of whom seems oblivious to the ambiguity of his or her reassurances, dismisses her worries. Indeed, the wolves do emerge, and the family decamps to the garden, from which Lucy and her pig-puppet bravely lead the family's charge back to reclaim their house from the jam-eating, video-game-playing pack. With the rhythms of an old fairy tale (the end is a new beginning of trouble in the walls), and startling graphics that force readers to look deeply into each scene, this is a book for the twenty-first-century child: visually and emotionally sophisticated, accessible, and inspired by both literary and popular themes and imagery. --Francisca Goldsmith Copyright 2003 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 2-4-Lucy hears sounds in her house and is certain that the "sneaking, creeping, crumpling" noises coming from inside the walls are wolves. Her parents and her brother know "if the wolves come out-, it's all over," and no one believes that the creatures are there-until they come out. Then the family flees, taking refuge outside. It is Lucy who bravely returns to rescue her pig puppet and who talks the others into forcing the animals to leave. Gaiman and McKean deftly pair text and illustrations to convey a strange, vivid story evolving from a child's worst, credible fear upon hearing a house creak and groan. Glowing eyes and expressive faces convey the imminent danger. This rather lengthy picture book displays the striking characteristics of a graphic novel: numerous four-panel pages opening into spreads that include painted people; scratchy ink-lined wolves; and photographed, computer-manipulated images. Children will delight in the "scary, creepy tone" and in the brave behavior displayed by the intrepid young heroine.-Marian Creamer, Children's Literature Alive, Portland, OR (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
You know what they say: "If the wolves come out of the walls, it's all over." When Lucy hears wolves crinkling, crackling, sneaking, creeping, and crumpling in the walls, she futilely attempts to warn her family. Once out of the walls, the wolves proceed to dance "wolfish dances up the stairs and down again" until Lucy, with the help of her stalwart pig-puppet, decides that enough is enough, and leads her family back--into the walls. Gaiman does here for the older picture-book set what he did for middle-grade readers with last year's Coraline, crafting a tale of surreal and sinister adversaries who are bested by a young girl's determination to set her world to rights. The slyly deadpan text, rich in language and wordplay, never doubts Lucy's capacity to manage the chaos, but McKean's illustrations are something else again, their mixed-media creepiness giving the lie to the publisher's disingenuous "all ages" designation and marking it clearly as not for the faint of heart. (Picture book. 7-10) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
