Synopsis
Chosen by the Children's Book Committee at Bank Street College as a Best Children's Book of the Year.
"Whybrow's second Little Wolf story includes every element needed to make an engrossing read for children: lost gold, travel, a villain, a ghost, and no parents! Full of fanciful wordplay and Toss's amusing illustrations, this book demands to be read aloud!"
"A delightful sequel to Little Wolf's Book of Badness/I> . This is bound to be a favorite with the beginning chapter-book set."
Children's Literature
Having taken over the college formerly run by the now-deceased Uncle BigBad, the two wolf friends, Little and Yellow, are determined to make it into Adventure Academy where young forest friends can come to have a good time. Funded by the wicked wolf's buried gold treasure that little brother Smellybreff has helped dig, they attract the attention of Mister Marvo who promises to build their dream park. But Marvo absconds with Smelly and the safe of gold so the friends, along with their first Academy client, a fledgling crow, chase the villain at length through snow, over mountains, and finally to his castle hideout where everything works out with the help of Uncle Bigbad's ghost and some quick thinking. Told entirely in Little's letters to his parents, the story's humor benefits from Little's creative spelling, putdowns of his little brother, Tom-Swifty sign-offs ("Sorebottomly yours, L." ), alternating undertold and hyperbolic storytelling, and the many little line drawings of Tony Ross. Readers of "Captain Underpants" and graduates of "The Jolly Postman" series will no doubt snatch this funny page-turner right up and be happily howling "Arrrrroooo" along with the triumphant wolves. 2000 (orig. 1996), Carolrhoda, $12.95. Ages 7 to 10. Reviewer: Susan Hepler