WATCH OUT FOR WOLFGANG
by Paul Carrick & illustrated by Paul Carrick
Who’s afraid of the big bad recycler? In Carrick’s riff—his authorial debut—on “The Three Little Pigs,” a mother robot sends her sons out to build their own factories, warning, “But you must build them big and strong to keep out Wolfgang the Recycler.” Though Mother worries he will disassemble her boys and make them into kitchen appliances, when Wolfgang outwits anxious Rod and vain Slick, he attaches their parts to himself. Ultimately, the third brother, odd, mud-loving Dudley, triumphs. The author/illustrator is a recycler himself, using found materials in bold, full-bleed, mixed-media illustrations to capture each robotic character’s metallic uniqueness. However, the pacing of words and pictures sometimes falters, leaving readers unsure of which part of the text is depicted. Further, while the traditional porcine tale’s moral lauds the value of hard work and logic, the message implied by Dudley’s victory—be yourself and you will defeat the wolves at your door—is undermined by the equally singular Rod and Slick’s undoing. (Picture book. 4-7)