“The Wolves in the Walls” is a children’s book from award-winning author Neil Gaiman and it is a story about a girl named Lucy who tries to save her family and house from the wolves that literally come out of the walls. Neil Gaiman’s somewhat haunting yet slow-paced story and Dave McKean’s dark and creative illustrations combine to make a dark yet slow children’s book about wolves invading a normal family’s home.

SUMMARY

The story starts out as a girl named Lucy starts hearing strange sounds coming from the walls of her house. Lucy first tells her mother about the noises, but her mother does not believe her when Lucy says that there are wolves behind the walls and thinks that it is the sound of mice behind the walls. Lucy’s mother then states:

“IF THE WOLVES COME OUT OF THE WALLS, THEN IT’S ALL OVER.”

The next day, Lucy hears louder sounds coming from the walls and thinks that the wolves are plotting their schemes. Lucy goes and tells her father about the noises, but her father does not believe her about wolves being in the walls and thinks that it is the sound of rats behind the walls. Lucy’s father then states:

“IF THE WOLVES COME OUT OF THE WALLS, THEN IT’S ALL OVER.”

The next day, Lucy is drawing some pictures when she hears the sound of wolves again and tells her brother about the sounds. Of course, the brother does not believe her about the wolves in the walls and tells her that it is only the sound of bats in the walls. Lucy’s brother then states:

“IF THE WOLVES COME OUT OF THE WALLS, THEN IT’S ALL OVER.”

Lucy is displeased with her family’s ignorance about the noises behind the walls until one night, the wolves actually come out of the walls and chases the family out of the house. While the family contemplates on their decision to move away from the house, Lucy remembers that she left her pig-puppet inside the house and rushes back to the house to retrieve it back. Lucy then returns back outside the house and her family scolds her for going back to the house, but Lucy is just happy to have her pig-puppet back.

The next day, the family is still contemplating on moving away to another home until Lucy speaks up and tells her family that they should go back and get their house back from the wolves. The family at first objected to the idea, but they relented on going back to the house. As the family reaches their house, they hide behind the walls so that the wolves would not see them. The family then witnesses the wolves playing around with the television, sliding down the stairs, beating Lucy’s brother’s high scores on the video games, playing with Lucy’s father’s second-best tuba and finally having a party in their house. The family soon has enough of the wolves’ antics when the wolves start messing up the house and the family ends up jumping out of the walls.

When the wolves see the family jump out of the walls, they are terrified and yell out:

“WHEN THE PEOPLE COME OUT OF THE WALLS, IT’S ALL OVER!”

Finally, the wolves start running out of the house and were never seen again. After the family cleans up the mess that the wolves made, everything is back to normal. Or so it seems until Lucy hears another unsettling sound behind the walls…

PROS

Dave McKean’s illustrations are both haunting and hilarious at the same time. The wolves are portrayed as drawings made by a child, as it is implied on the front cover of the book. The wolves are also drawn in both a frightening and humorous way throughout the book. A great example of an image where the wolves display both terror and humor is in the image of the wolves being shown in creepy shadows as they are watching television and are laughing their heads off. Another advantage that this book has is the heroine Lucy. Lucy knew that trouble was about to begin and tries to warn her family of the danger of staying in the house, even though her family do not believe her at first. Then, when the family is in danger of moving away, Lucy has the courage to save their house from the wolves, despite her family’s objections, making her the heroine of the story.

CONS

Parents should know that this story contains scary elements about wolves. Younger children may fear that wolves would actually come out their walls and chase them out of the house, even though that is fiction. Also, the images of the wolves may be scary for younger children as they are drawn as threatening looking and scary. Probably the scariest image in this book is the image of a dark and shadowy wolf about to devour Lucy’s pig-puppet as Lucy starts to imagine what the wolves would do her pig-puppet. Also, the story is extremely slow in many scenes and the readers would usually find themselves wondering “When are we going to get to the action of the story?” Even though the action starts when the wolves come out of the walls, it slows back down to the family just repeating what they are going to do about moving away and that discussion has been mention two times before they reached an actual conclusion.

OVERALL

“The Wolves in the Walls” have creative and scary illustrations by Dave McKean and have a strong heroine in Lucy, who saved her family from the wolves. However, the story falls flat on the scare factor as the wolves are only perceived as the usual unwelcome guests in the family’s home and the story is slow-paced as it took time for the family to decide to rush back to their home. If you want a story that is both action-packed and scary, then read Neil Gaiman’s other books such as, “Coraline” and “The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish.”