Good Little Wolf

Title: Good Little Wolf     
Author: Nadia Shireen
Illustrator: Nadia Shireen  
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf 
Publication Date: 2011 
Genre/Format: Fiction/Picture Book 
Summary: Rolf, a good little wolf, cross paths with the Big Bad Wolf of fairy tale infamy. The Big Bad Wolf tries to tell the good little wolf that he needs to get in touch with his inner wolf. Can he trust the Big Bad Wolf? 
What I Think: I think the Big Bad Wolf is not to be trusted!!! This is definitely a story to share with older readers because it will make them think about what it means to be a good little wolf and how that will impact them as they go through life and encounter big bad wolves! (Hint, in life there aren't always happy endings...)

I love this book to teach students about characters in fairy tales. One important element in fairy tales is that the characters are flat - they don't typically go through any life-changing experience. They are all good or all bad from the beginning and we can expect them to always be all good or all bad forever and ever. This is something that is different from other fiction that we read where the characters are dynamic and usually change or develop as the story progresses. This book is a reminder that readers have to remember what they know about fairy tale characters. They can apply this knowledge to the story to try and predict whether the good little wolf will succeed at changing the big bad wolf's ways. What do you think will happen at the end? You have to read to find out!
Read Together: 4 - 12 
Read Alone: 3 - 12 
Read With: I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen, Little Red Riding Hood by Train Schart Hyman or other versions, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka 
Snatch of Text:  

"'You LOOK like a wolf...

You FEEL like a wolf...

You SMELL like a wolf...'

'That's because I am a wolf,' piped up Rolf.

'I'm a very good little wolf.'

'Good?' said the Big Bad Wolf.

'Wolves aren't good!

Wolves are BIG and BAD.'"

Reading Strategies to Practice: Activating Background Knowledge, Making Connections, Making Predictions, Making Inferences 
Writing Strategies to Practice: Narrative - Fractured Fairy Tales 
Writing Prompts: Take your favorite fairy tale and mix it up! Change the setting, change the characters, maybe change the plot like this book does and write your own version of the story! 
Topics Covered: Innocence, Naivete, Identity, Folk Literature - Fairy Tales, Characters