The Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Dave McKean

I just read The Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Dave McKean. He is probably most famous for his graphic novels, Coraline (which is out in theatres now), and his newest The Graveyard Book (The Newbery Winner...I will review this one later).




The Wolves in the Walls is an absolutely terrifying story! The illustrations add a very eerie quality to the story, but are fascinating to look at, they seem to be collages mixed with drawings, and maybe even photographs. Here is a sample of one of the pages of the stories I found on Amazon:

Lucy starts to hear things in the walls and tells her Mom, Dad, and Brother that there are Wolves in the walls...her Mom says it must be mice, her Dad says it must be rats, and her Brother says it must be bats, but they all agree that if "the wolves come out of the walls, it's all over!!" To Lucy's dismay no one seems to know "what" is all over. The Wolves do come out of the walls and Lucy and her family flee down to the garden. The Wolves take over their home and her parents and brother discuss moving to different countries, but Lucy just wants to live in their home again. Lucy finally convinces her family to go and live in the walls of their home. Once her family sees the Wolves wearing their clothes, playing her brothers video games, and getting jam all over everything, they decide they are going to rightfully take their home back!! Once they come out of the walls the Wolves yell "And when the people come out of the walls, it's all over!!"

I really enjoyed the story, but then again I quite like scary, strange, and weird stories!! I don't think I would recommend this to young children who are easily scared! I would recommend to older children...maybe ages 7 and up! Having the book in the picture book area will cause confusion! And there could be kids out there who really enjoy strange and wild stories like this one!!