Book Review: Little Wolf's Haunted Hall for Small Horrors by Ian Whybrow

 Here's a review of the third volume of this very cool and highy underrated series.

 

Little Wolf's Uncle Bigbad, proving that he won't let a little thing like death stop him, has returned as a ghost with many dark and spooky powers, and LW, along with his buddies Yeller, Stubbs, and guest pest Smellybreff, who plan to open a Scare School to help little critters get their scream on, persuade him to be their "School Spirit." Uncle Bigbad obliges, but, apparently being just as untrustworthy as he was in life, he makes things too scary, and ends up scaring the pants off of their students...

...literally!



 



 

Uncle Bigbad makes a wager with the group, promising to share his power of finding lost treasure with them if they can find someone who can stand up to him for five minutes. LW searches high and low, before coming across a bear cub named Normus who's super-strong, brave, and a bit of a bully. Normus proves to be more than a match for Uncle Bigbad's dark powers, but this endeavor may end up being more trouble than it's worth, because Normus spends most of his time bullying and bashing LW and his friends. Can Little and his crew get Normus on their side in time to win the bet?

Not only is that rude, but also very unsanitary! :-p

 

 

 

My thoughts: One of the more interesting books in this series with many exciting moments. This volume gives us our first in-depth look at the various denizens of the Frettning Forest(turtles, lions, bats, alligators, weasels et al.) as well as more of the various surrounding areas. Normus' briefly-seen family are good, well-written characters, as is, of course, Uncle Bigbad. I must admit that Mister Twister's unexplained villain status does still bug me a little bit, but other than this, I had no major complaints. All in all, an excellent and very enjoyable addition to this series, and a must-have for any Little Wolf aficionado.

 

 

Buy it on Amazon!

 



 

Book Review: Little Wolf's Diary of Daring Deeds by Ian Whybrow

Here's a review of the second volume in this very nifty book series.

 

 

 

Little Wolf is planning to open an Adventure Academy where his(late) Uncle Bigbad's Cunning College once was, and is pleased for his joke-loving cousin Yeller(named for his REALLY LOUD VOICE!*) to come join him. Unfortunately, he soon becomes doubly disappointed when not only do his parents decide not to come stay with them, but his little brother Smellybreff does. Now, LW had indicated several times in the previous book that he didn't like Smellybreff very much, and in this volume we truly see why. Smells is the most whiny, bossy, greedy, pesky, ill-mannered little brat you'd ever care to meet!(And those are just some of his good points! :-D) His parents, very obliviously however, think that Smells is cute and can do no wrong, possibly indicating that his misdeeds occur in their absence.

Mr. Big Stuff himself.

 

 





Eventually, LW and his friends get a call from a Mister Marvo who agrees to help them set up the attractions at Adventure Academy; unfortunately, little do they know that he's actually Mister Twister the fox, Uncle Bigbad's former business partner and master of disguise, who cubnaps Smellybreff and steals Uncle Bigbad's treasure. Now it's up to Little, Yeller, and their new travelling buddy Stubbs the crow(known for mostly saying "Ark" with a few other words, occasionally) to save the little pest.

Along the way, they face off with a mountain lion, explore several strange towns, climb the Grim Mountains, visit a hot springs, charter a boat, and encounter a friendly(and very helpful) group of whales. Will they be able to rescue Smells and retrieve the treasue before it's too late?

 

 

My thoughts: Although this book had its interesting moments, I personally didn't think it was one of this series' stronger entries. To be fair, its purpose seemed to be mainly to establish the characters and storyline for the series in general. Out of fairness also, the crew's adventures and the locations they visit are quite interesting, and there are some good moments of character development as the crew attempt to overcome their worst fears: Stubbs' fear of flying, LW's fear of loud noises, and Yeller's fear of snow and cold weather(The latter being because the cold weakens his voice).

 

My only real major beef with this book was:

 

Mister Twister's sudden villain status; in the previous book, he was a good guy, and even warned LW not to trust Uncle Bigbad. Granted, the series did need an antagonist, but still.

 

Despite its minor flaws, this book is by no means terrible. In fact, it's a very good, fun, and very well-written book with many memorable characters. A must have for any Little Wolf fan.

 

 

Buy it on Amazon!

 

 

 

 

*In this respect, he takes after Uncle Bigbad a little bit.



Book Review:The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl

Another review of another classic by the great Roald Dahl.

This story is told from the perspective of a little girl whose neighbors, the Greggs(Mr. and Mrs. Gregg and their sons Philip and William*) are very avid hunters; every Saturday, they go into the woods seeking out various animals(mostly ducks and deer) for the pleasure of shooting them. Naturally, the little girl doesn't appreciate this, and she tries to tell the Greggs to stop, but they rudely give her the brush-off. Well, this turns out to be a very unwise move on their part, because something they don't realize about this particular little girl is that she has...a MAGIC FINGER!

All this little girl has to do is point her magic finger at someone, and fantastic things happen to them. Proof positive comes the next morning when the Greggs wake up to discover that they've shrunken down to duck size and grown wings!!

And, on top of this, a family of ducks end up growing to human size, gaining human arms, and taking up residence in the Greggs' house!

The Greggs have to adjust to life despite this...but will they ever learn their lesson?




My thoughts:This is a very cute, clever, well-written book; the illustrations by Tony Ross(who also illustrated, among other things, the Little Wolf book series) are excellent.** The story, interestingly enough, has two morals. The first, more obvious one is, as the ever-quotable Popeye once said, "Be kind to aminals", which is, in fact, a pretty good idea. :-D  The second, slightly more vague moral is presented by the little girl herself, in that she tends to zap people, in anger, with her magic finger, and ends up appalled by the end results, the implicit moral being, "It's best if people control their tempers, otherwise they never know what can of worms  they might open," which is also a pretty good idea.

My only beefs about this book are:

-It's kind of short, especially compared with Dahl's other books.

-We never do find out what the little girl's name is.

All things said, this is a good, high-quality, and very enjoyable Roald Dahl classic.


*On an interesting note, the sons' names could be abbreviated as, "Phil and Will"(or possibly "Phil and Bill), which sounds similar to the names of another certain famous pair of siblings.

**There's another version of this book with illustrations by Quentin Blake(who's illustrated most of Dahl's other books); the illustrations of which are also very good.

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Book Review:Little Wolf's Book of Badness by Ian Whybrow

Here's my review of the first volume of a good but underappreciated book series.

Who's afraid of Little Wolf? Nobody!(Could have something to do with the fact that he's just sooooo cute!) And this problem is one that his parents plan to remedy by sending him to his famous Uncle Bigbad's college in the Frettning Forest to learn how to be a better(or shoud we say "badder") wolf. (Didn't know there was a right and wrong way to be a wolf, but there it is.)

Along the way, Little Wolf meets his uncle's old business partner(who will become an important character in later books), runs afoul of some birds, meets a certain little girl in a red hood, and befriends a Cub Scout troop who even invite him to stay with them.

  He also has a mishap with a hedgehog.

On top of all this, one also wonders if Uncle Bigbad(who has a REALLY LOUD voice!) really can be trusted...

My thoughts:Overall, this is a good, well-written book; one of the best in the series IMHO. The format it's written in is very clever and unique; it's told from Little Wolf's perspective in a series of letters written home to his parents. (One could possibly call this a "chapter book deconstruction.")

Little Wolf's constant misspellings and coining of words(e.g. "frozz", "fedduply", "lipsmackerous", etc.) add to the humorous nature of the storyline, and Little Wolf himself is a good and interesting character who, despite his mischievous nature, comes off as quite likeable(even sympathetic). A great beginning to a great series; definetly worth a read. (BTW, Little Wolf's little brother Smellybreff and cousin Yeller who are mentioned several times in this book will join Little Wolf on his adventures in later books.)

Buy it on Amazon!