Wolf and the Seven Little Kids

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is also the
author of The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese Women’s Lives, Kurlek, and
Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Hom

This delightful version of a classic Brothers Grimm tale is not too
frightening for small children, because the sunny watercolors suggest
that all will be well in the end. And of course it is.

Children will enjoy spotting the wolf hiding in a nearby birch wood as
Mother Goat sets off on her errands (only his head shows) or as he puts
his whitened paws on a window ledge to trick the kids into believing
that their mother has returned. Details of the cabin interior, as the
kids scatter to hide once they have foolishly unlocked the door, include
country china, a colorful quilt, and a grandfather clock. The seventh
child hides in the clock and survives to tell his mother the dreadful
news—that the wolf has consumed the six other children.

The wicked wolf gets his just deserts, however, when his belly is slit
as he sleeps and the six kids are rescued. The kids are replaced by
large stones so that after entering the water, he drowns. The
playfulness of the kids as they dance for joy is beautifully executed.

Well-known illustrator Ann Blades has received many awards for her
illustrations, including the Governor General’s Award and the Canadian
Library Association’s Amelia Francis Howard-Gibbon Award for A Salmon
for Simon (1978). Wolf and the Seven Little Kids is highly recommended
for small children.