Author: Katherena Vermette
Illustrator: Julie Flett
Copyright: 2019
This picture book for young children is an empowering Indigenous twist on a classic wolf narrative.
No More Big Bad Wolf!
A little girl runs too far from her mother and gets lost in the woods. She is then accompanied by a wolf who guides her in questioning her knowledge to relinquish survival thinking. The wolf’s questions reassure the girl that she knows the woods and knows certain techniques that can help her through the night.
As one always knows, the wolf is always big and bad. Of course this book, where the girl meets the wolf, is going to end...bad? No, not at all. The author, Katherena Vermette, introduces readers to a fictitious story based on the authors experience of being told indigenous stories involving wolves. Vermette is a Métis writer. She is from Treaty One territory in Manitoba.This story is another example of how the reader’s perspective on a wolf can change from the repetitive idea that all wolves in stories are antagonists. Vermette also used her background knowledge in including the act of gratitude in the story as tobacco tied in a small red cloth. According to the author, tobacco is one of the sacred medicines in her culture and believed the inclusion of this ending was important.
Julie Flett’s paintings and illustrations that were photographed for this book made the words come to life! The majority of the written text for this story was located on white pages with simple text font. This simplification of the words with little text features respectively go along with the illustrations. The illustrations corresponded with the text and used certain artistic techniques to make the illustrations energetic. Julia Flett used her page spread excellently by filling each page of illustration with color which was mostly based on a color palette of dark green, light gray, black, white and light blue. Since the majority of the book’s setting was during dawn and night, Flett had to engagingly express the character’s emotions and surroundings based on the text. I believe that Flett purposefully made the girl’s dress and wolf’s fur brighter to make them stand out from the darker background of the setting on each page.
For the wolf’s fur, Julia Flett incorporated circular and scratched line patterns to mimic fur. I believe this feature made the wolf more realistic and gave the reader an opportunity to relate to animals in their own life. Along with this, the girl’s facial expressions and movement of her hair and red dress corresponded with the description of how the girl was scared to be alone. Not only were the characters made realistic to their emotions, but the wilderness surroundings embodied reality. The stream where the girl knew to eat safe berries was realistically moving based on Julie Flett’s use of colors. The birds in the sky had different positioning making them look like they were about to land on different trees or were foraging for food. The grass was different colors and had a circular motion as well; while the trees were taller and seemed motionless in perspective to the environment and characters.
The author and illustrator had only two pages that involved double page spreads of illustrations. The author never had text that had to be continued onto another page which made the story more simpler to continue to read. One page of text had a complete thought that directly corresponded with an illustration as a source of imagery. Along with this, the homogenous layout of the pages of text and illustrations having horizontal alignment made it predictable for the reader’s experience and made it simpler to read.
Agency-the ability to have ideas, to have intentions, and to exert influence and take action; Vaughn et al., 2019
One of the main themes that can be discussed through this book is the importance of natural instincts of surviving. The little girl was frightened to be alone in the woods away from her mother and the camp she lived at. She became unsure about herself and how she could get back. It wasn’t until the wolf who guided her with questions, that the little girl took “a deep breath” and truly realized she knew how to get back. She understood her survival instincts that allowed her to determine what berries were safe to eat and what trees were similar to those close to where she was staying. It seemed like being alone scared her instincts and survival techniques away. Her ability to make realizations and understand her true instincts demonstrated that she had agency as a character.
Just like in The Wild Robot, Roz was unsure about her environment and how she fit in with the wilderness. It took time for her to realize that she was capable of natural instincts that weren't correspondent to who she was, a robot. The commonality of Roz and the little girl demonstrating agency in the way they use their intuitions and followed through ideas made them survive in the wild.
As stated in my previous blog about what makes a good children's book, I believe this sweet and caring book is a good children's book. The repetitive questions the wolf asked the little girl brought a sense of dependence on something that reassures us on who we are and what we are good at. The pictures demonstrated the growing relationship between the girl and the wolf. I thought about my dog when reading this book and how sometimes when I feel unsafe, she is there to be my guidance and reassurance that I am okay. I also liked this book because it was so different from the cliche books of the wolf being the mean character. It really opened my eyes that in children's literature, there are authors who purposefully writes stories that bring light to characters.
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