The Wolves in the Walls
Truth be told, Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's picture bookThe Wolves  in the Wallsis terrifying. Sure, the story is fairytale-like and  presented in a jaunty, casually nonsensical way, but it is absolutely  the stuff of nightmares. Lucy hears wolves hustling, bustling,  crinkling, and crackling in the walls of the old house where her family  lives, but no one believes her. Her mother says it's mice, her brother  says bats, and her father says what everyone seems to say, "If the  wolves come out of the walls, it's all over." Lucy remains convinced, as is her beloved pig-puppet, and her worst fears are confirmed when the wolves actually do come out of the walls.Up to this point, McKean's illustrations are spectacular, sinister  collages awash in golden sepia tones evocative of the creepy beauty inThe City of Lost  Children. The wolves explode into the story in scratchy  pen-and-ink, all jaws and eyes. The family flees to the cold, moonlit  garden, where they ponder their future. (Her brother suggests, for  example, that they escape to outer space where there's "nothing but  foozles and squossucks for billions of miles.") Lucy wants to live in  her own house...and she wants the pig-puppet she left behind.Eventually she talks her family into moving back into the once-wolfish  walls, where they peek out at the wolves who are watching their  television and spilling popcorn on slices of toast and jam, dashing up  the stairs, and wearing their clothes. When the family can't stand it anymore, they burst forth from the walls, scaring the wolves, who shout, "And when the people come out of the walls, it's all over!" The wolves flee and everything goes back to normal...until the tidy ending when Lucy hears "a noise that sounded exactly like an elephant trying not to sneeze." Adult fans of this talented pair will revel in the quirky story and its darkly gorgeous, deliciously shadowy trappings, but the young or faint of heart, beware! (Ages 9 and older)--Karin Snelson--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.