October’s TBR Challenge topic of “The Hunt” was certainly a challenge for me as I have not read any adult fiction or non-fiction that could be described as such. Nor have I watched a movie or TV show with any hunting. I am a wimp and just can’t bear such adrenaline rushes. However, I did read a (long) picture book that connects to the theme.

Sid Sharp’s The Wolf Suit

The Blurb: Bellwether Riggwelter is, once again, out of blackberries. This time, rather than tiptoe through a forest full of predators, he comes up with a new plan. He will keep himself safe by blending in—he will sew a Wolf Suit! The disguise works perfectly . . . sort of. Bellwether realizes he can’t enjoy the forest in a bulky suit, and he may not be the only creature in the forest who feels that way. Perhaps not everyone is as wolfish as they appear.

With humor, darkness, and insight reminiscent of Jon Klassen and Edward Gorey, Sharp turns the idiom “wolf in sheep’s clothing” on its head. The perfect contemporary folktale to press into the hands of anyone who has felt they need to pretend to be someone else.

Bellwether Riggwelter is a sheep. He’s a sheep who is rather scared of wolves so he doesn’t venture out of his home much. He has too much fear. Of wolves. However, Bellwether is hungry and needs to find some food (or blackberries). He sews a wolf suit for himself (as sheep are known to have fine motor sewing skills) and ventures out into the woods in pursuit of fruit. He comes across a number of other wolves but is not perturbed as he feels he is acting the part well. Until he sees that his sewing was dodgy and his wolf suit started to fall apart. Decisions had to be made, and in typical happily ever after fairy tale style, no sheep pretending they are wolves died in this picture book.

The picture book was longer than a standard one. It had 4 chapters and seemed to be situated between that picture book and early reader level for kids. Late pre-school or Kindergarten. Though honestly, you can be any age to read this book. It was a lot of fun with great illustrations filled with discoveries embedded throughout for I-Spy inquisitive readers.

Metadata:

My metadata: absurd, anthropomorphic, anxiety, children’s books, environment, fairytale, fear, picture books.

Library metadata: The library closest to my home (where I was once employed) that holds a copy of this book had zero subject descriptors in their metadata. Just the standard Author/Title/Publisher/Year and blurb. Not helpful at all. And annoying.

However, I did find a library in Victoria with a splendid record with the following subject metadata: Genre: Funny animal comics; Subject Term: Self-esteem — Comic books, strips, etc., Self-reliance — Comic books, strips, etc., Wolves — Comic books, strips, etc., Sheep — Comic books, strips, etc., Disguise — Comic books, strips, etc.; Reading Level: Ages 6-11.

I do find it interesting that the book is described as “Comic books, strips, etc.”. It certainly did not have the look and feel of a comic book or a graphic novel. It looked like and read like a picture book. It was just longer. I didn’t think that the expanded length would prohibit a book from being categorised as such.

Go figure! Meanwhile, go read it!