Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: Boy

  • The Boy and the Moonimal

    The Boy and the Moonimal

    The delicate shades of colour that enhance The Boy and the Moonimal hard back picture book ensure that the story will be mellow as well. This is a story about a small Moonimal who is discovered in a shop by a young boy. His mother buys the soft toy for the lad who instantly gives him his name. The two are inseparable and very happy together as both believe in lots of hugging. However, one-day disaster falls. The boy tumbles over in the forest and breaks his glasses. His mother carries him home to comfort him, leaving Moonimal behind. Some kindly rabbits discover him and carry him down to their burrow.

    From that time on things are never the same. Many adventures befall the toy, but he never forgets his boy. Though many years have passed the boy has never forgotten Moonimal and through a strange coincident they meet again.

    The colours in the illustrated pages are quite beautiful with the characters depicted as being gentle. Although sadness is portrayed, there is never a sense of danger. The text is well broken up by the large and small illustrations, and the character’s emotions are portrayed clearly. The Boy and the Moonimal is a happy story with just enough mystery to engage a young listener.

  • Wolfboy

    Wolfboy

    As everyone knows when you get hungry, very, very hungry, you sometimes turn into a Monster who is ready to eat just about anything that comes along and Wolfboy was no exception; he was very hungry and as it was the full moon as well, going hungry was not nice, not nice at all.

    He stomped off through the woods calling out to the rabbits, who decided to hide, to stay out of his way, the fish in the muddy stream did the same and the soggy bog was not helpful at all.

    The further into the woods he stomped the more fuss he made, which for little ones learning language and reading skills, Wolfboy adds some very dramatic words, as he searches high and low for those pesky little rabbits.

    The drama builds until he finds those pesky little rabbits that had a wonderful surprise waiting for a very hungry, fussy, growly and lots more fantasticality dramatic words, Wolfboy. Oh, the drama, the fun and the laugh of relief as Wolfboy needs to add this long list of growly words, one simple little word, Happy.

    Black pages, stark, brightly coloured characters and good use of language make Wolfboy, from the imagination of Andy Harkness, into an all-time great read, full of fun and scary bits as well.

    You may well ask why the illustrations are a little different and that is because Andy Harness began them as pencil sketches, shaped the scenery and characters in clay, and then took them all outdoors, where he had so much fun setting the scene, before capturing them for all time in a photograph. He then created the images into the book with the vibrant blue Wolfboy as the lead, along with his also brightly coloured friends the Rabbits.