SLIS 5420 Module 9 Mystery WHERE IS THE BIG BAD WOLF?

Where is the Big Bad Wolf? by Eileen Christelow
Book Cover

Image retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Wheres-Big-Wolf-Eileen-Christelow/dp/0618181946

Book Summary

Detective Phineas T. Doggedly, or just Doggedly, catches low-down, no-good, chicken-chasing, pig-poaching rascals. The only rascal in town is the Big Bad Wolf (BBW). After being caught, the wolf promises Doggedly to be good forever but betrays Doggedly's trust every single time. Doggedly hopes that the Big Bad Wolf's promise becomes true every time.

One day, three little pigs in a straw house gets in trouble. Doggedly rushes to catch the Big Bad Wolf but can't find him anywhere in sight. A strange-looking sheep is nearby to help the three little pigs. Doggedly goes to the BBW's house and he's got the flu! A few days later the three little pigs get in trouble in a sticks house. The BBW still is nowhere to be found and luckily the strange-looking sheep is there to assist the three little pigs. Doggedly is sure that it is the BBW this time but finds him  very sickly in the hospital. Some elderly cows take the three little pigs in and read the original tale to them. The next day the three little pigs decide to build a house out of brick and the strange-looking sheep gets nervous. Even with two elderly cows accompanying Doggedly to keep him awake at his night watch, Doggedly still doesn't catch the culprit in action. Doggedly races to the hospital and finds half of BBW still in a sheep costume. The BBW spends a few days in the jail and Doggedly hopes that the BBW means what he promises this time. Now the three little pigs are getting advice from a strange-looking horse...

Reference

Christelow, Eileen. (2002). Where is the big bad wolf? New York: Clarion Books, a Houghton        
            Mifflin Company.

Librarian's Corner

Where is the Big Bad Wolf? is written by the same author of Five Little Monkeys series. I was more familiar with the Five Little Monkeys series and have enjoyed all the Five Little Monkeys books. Where is the Big Bad Wolf kept me wondering the relationship between the helpful but strange-looking sheep and the Big Bad Wolf. The students will know the answer before the detective and not-so-smart conclusions from the detective will entertain the readers to the end of the story. This is a great book to introduce primary students to mysteries and children will naturally pay very close attention to the story to search for clues.

Reviews
From Booklist

Variations on the story of the "Three Little Pigs" are hardly in short supply, but this comic version has its his own pleasures, including a dumb dog detective and a wily wolf, who is literally in sheep's clothing. It's not that Detective Doggedly hasn't previously caught Big Bad Wolf, the town's only criminal. However, every time he intercepts Wolf committing a crime, Doggedly lets him go, relying on Wolf's promise that he'll never do it again. Of course, when the homes of the three little pigs keep getting blown down, the Wolf is the chief suspect. But Wolf is at home sick in bed, and the only animal at the scene of the crime is a kindly sheep who seems to be offering the pigs aid and advice ("Build a stick house. It's so easy!"). What's a detective to believe? Kids will know the answer; even little ones will be able to spot the wolf's visage under the woolly curls. As usual, Christelow provides cartoon-style artwork of the highest quality, complete with balloon dialogue. There's fun in both text and pictures, and here familiarity breeds hilarity. Category: Books for the Young--Fiction. 2002, Clarion, $15. PreS-Gr. 1.

Cooper, Ilene. (October 2002). [Review for Where is the Big Bad Wolf? by Eileen Christelow.] Booklist, 99(4).

From Kirkus Reviews

Three little pigs get some real bad advice from a wolf in a real goofy sheep disguise in this comical whodunit. The three little pigs are having their homes blown down-and escaping by the hair of their chinny-chin-chins-and Detective Doggedly believes it might be the work of the shiftless, no-account neighborhood wolf, the infamous BBW. But the only character found at the crime scenes is a newcomer to town: Esmeralda the sheep. Sure, kids will note, Esmeralda their foot, for her disguise is pretty transparent. She has also been giving the pigs construction ideas: straw is good, twigs are good, and cardboard's not bad. Two cows suggest a brick house, which foils the wolf and ends in his unveiling and incarceration. Short-term incarceration, that is, as he's soon back, this time tricked out as a horse, with more self-serving recommendations: "Pick peas after midnight, when everybody is asleep. They'll taste sweeter." So what if there are a few inexplicables here-How did the wolf con his way into that hospital bed?-this is good clownish fun, and the rough-and-tumble art keeps the farce bubbling. 2002, Clarion, $15.00. Category: Picture book. Ages 4 to 7. © 2002 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review. (July 2002). [ Review on Where is the Big Bad Wolf? by Eileen Christelow.] Kirkus Reviews, 70(14).

Value to the Library
Elementary School Library
The school librarian can read aloud this book to help enhance the fairy tale unit in language arts, especially when the classroom teachers have the students to add a twist in an original fairy tale. After reading aloud Where is the Big Bad Wolf?, the librarian can ask the students to brainstorm other animals that the Big Bad Wolf can dress up as to fool the detective. The librarian and also team up with the art teacher to have the students create pictures of the dressed-up Big Bad Wolf using different mediums of art: paint, crayons, color pencils, markers, cotton balls, etc.