Wolf Story

This irresistible book is about: a father (intelligent, patient, an inventive storyteller); his five-year-old son Michael (intelligent, crafty, addicted to stories); and a story. It is a Wolf Story, which begins one night at bedtime and is spun into soap opera proportions over subsequent bedtimes and Sunday excursions to the park and the beach, in satisfying snatches. The melodrama unfolds as Waldo (ferocious but foppish wolf) labors to abduct Rainbow (resourceful but saucy hen) and make her his dinner. Enter Jimmy Tractorwheel, the farmer's sturdy son; add inspirational plot changes by Michael and imaginative leaps (even in traffic) by the storytelling father, and Waldo is brought to a well-adjusted end. At least this time.