WOLF

Fanelli (My Map Book, 1995, etc.) turns the idea of the wolf at the door on its head in this offbeat story. Wolf goes to town to make some friends, but everyone is frightened of him, even when he puts on a mask. Discouraged, he wanders toward home, encounters a girl wolf (you can tell by her fur bows), and pours out all his troubles. The townspeople who were chasing him see the error of their ways, and everyone joins in a picnic with a family of wolves in the forest. Fanelli's art is characteristically quirky: bits of advertising and newsprint collage, scribbled line, matte color, and squiggly-type design. Not everyone will be enchanted; this is mostly for those who already find Fanelli's eccentricities winning. (Picture book. 4- 8)