The Wolf Who Cried Boy

The Wolf Who Cried Boy

By Bob Hartman

Illustrated by Tim Raglin

G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2002

27 pages 

Traditional Literature

The Wolf Who Cried Boy is a perfect twist on The Boy Who Cried Wolf. It tells the story of a little wolf who is bored of the dinners his mother always cooks. He is tired of Lamburgers and wants some boy for dinner. His father promises that if he finds a boy they can eat him, but boys are hard to come by. Little Wolf decides to trick his parents into thinking he saw a boy and his parents fall for it, searching high a low for the little boy for dinner. Eventually his parents catch on to his tricks and end up not listening when a little boy walks right into their cave.

Raglin's illustrations are humorous and I love the lines and attention to details. Raglin uses lots of double page spreads and includes vignettes throughout the text. The text is very informal and emphasizes action words.             

     A teacher could use this book when talking about characters, setting, and plots. This story is very easy to understand and would not be hard for any grade to determine these features of the book. This book would also be great when talking about action verbs. Most actions in this book are emphasized with larger font. They also use a lot of variation in the verbs and are not constantly repeating the same actions over and over. Finally, this story could be used when talking about consequences of our actions.