The Ways of the Wolf

by Smriti Halls, illustrated by Jonathan Woodward

Interest age: 7 to 11
Reading age: 8+

Published by Wren & Rook, 2017

  • Around the world
  • Non-fiction

About this book

A big, stunning hardback that pays tribute to a misunderstood animal: the wolf. As Smriti Prasadam-Halls writes at the beginning: 'Sensitive or savage? Beautiful or bloodthirsty? You decide...'

To help you understand the wolf better, the book delves into folklore and other fascinating facts. Did you know that the male and female pair for life? That a wolf, on average, travels for ten hours a day?

Smriti Prasadam-Halls provides a wealth of detail that will make for a good family discussion: is the wolf friend or foe? There's a nice conservation theme in the book too: that the wolf is just looking to survive, like other animals – and just like us. 

The illustrations are completely bewitching and very clever. Jonathan Woodward uses papercut collage artwork to give the pictures a sense of layering, so the scenes almost seem 3D. You feel you could take hold of the trees on the page and shake the snow from out of them.

Printed on uncoated wood paper, there is a really luxurious sense to it all and the book would make a brilliant present for anyone curious in animals, nature and just non-fiction more generally.

About the author

Smriti Halls is an award-winning, critically acclaimed children's author, published in more than 30 languages worldwide. Her books include #1 bestseller I Love You Night and Day, I'm Sticking with You, Elephant in My Kitchen and The Little Island.

With a cast of characters as varied as mischievous monsters and disgruntled geese, she explores relationship and identity; the personal and the political; how it feels to be in your own skin - and in someone else's. Her books, often fast-paced and funny or lyrical and tender, are always full of heart and hope and speak to the child in all of us.

Smriti also creates bold board books to engage the very smallest readers, young fiction for newly independent readers and beautiful, highly illustrated non-fiction for older readers including the award-winning The Ways of the Wolf.

The Little Island is currently shortlisted for the 2020 Little Rebels Award and the 2020 Teach Primary Awards, while I'm Sticking With You was the Independent Bookshops Children's Book of the Month for August 2020. Her forthcoming picture book Rain Before Rainbows (illustrated by David Litchfield) has been made available ahead of publication in partnership with Save the Children as a free e-book to support their work with families most affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Smriti works widely with children and adults in schools, libraries, festivals, bookshops and prisons to bring a love of reading and stories to the widest possible audience. She lives in London and is also published as Smriti Prasadam-Halls.

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