Product Description

When Lucy hears noises from behind the wall she tries to warn her parents that there are wolves banging about. But her parents don't listen. When the wolves finally take over the house and Lucy and her family are evicted to live in the garden her parents realise perhaps they should have listened. But Lucy is no shrinking violet and pretty soon she has the wolves out and the family back in the house. So what was that noise Lucy heard coming from behind the wall...? A brilliant, witty and inventive picture book with cutting-edge art, which is sure to be a hit with existing fans of Neil Gaiman as well as young readers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3187 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 56 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Truth be told, Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's picture book The Wolves in the Walls is terrifying. Sure, the story is fairytale-like and presented in a jaunty, casually nonsensical way, but it is absolutely the stuff of nightmares. Lucy hears wolves hustling, bustling, crinkling and crackling in the walls of the old house where her family lives, but no one believes her. Her mother says it's mice, her brother says bats, and her father says what everyone seems to say: "If the wolves come out of the walls, it's all over." Lucy remains convinced, as is her beloved pig-puppet, and her worst fears are confirmed when the wolves actually do come out of the walls.

Up to this point, McKean's illustrations are spectacular, sinister collages awash in golden sepia tones evocative of the creepy beauty in The City of Lost Children. The wolves explode into the story in scratchy pen-and-ink, all jaws and eyes. The family flees to the cold, moonlit garden, where they ponder their future. Her brother suggests they escape to outer space where there's "nothing but foozles and squossucks for billions of miles". Lucy wants to live in her own house...and she wants the pig-puppet she left behind.

Eventually she talks her family into moving back into the once-wolfish walls, where they peek out at the wolves who are watching their television and spilling popcorn on slices of toast and jam, dashing up the stairs and wearing their clothes. When the family can't stand it anymore, they burst forth from the walls, scaring the wolves, who shout "And when the people come out of the walls, it's all over!" The wolves flee and everything goes back to normal...until the tidy ending when Lucy hears "a noise that sounded exactly like an elephant trying not to sneeze". Adult fans of this talented pair will revel in the quirky story and its darkly gorgeous, deliciously shadowy trappings, but the young or faint of heart, beware. The book is recommended for ages nine and above. --Karin Snelson, Amazon.com

About the Author
Neil Gaiman is the best-selling, multi-prize-winning author of many books for adults, among them novels and graphic novels. He is also a screenplay writer and the author of Coraline and The Day I Swapped my Dad for Two Goldfish for the children's audience. Neil is British and lives in America. Dave McKean is a long-time collaborator of Neil's and has worked with him on many titles, including The Day I Swapped my Dad for Two Goldfish. Dave is also a film-maker and he lives in Sevenoaks in Kent. .

Customer Reviews

what a winner!
I have a problem where I tend to go for the pictures before the words, and this was no exception. At the time i discovered this absolute marvel of a book I was just learning about the illustrations of Dave McKean, and this was the first time I had ever come across Neil Gaiman...but what a combination!
For those of us who could never quite get enough of Roald Dahls wit, colour or sheer scope of imagination, Neil Gaiman fills that void for young and old, with just a little more quirkyness. What I really love is how clevery Gaiman writes without alienating a child. Such bizarre (yet oddly concievable) ideas are conveyed with such ease you'd think you were reading a chapter from the autobiography of this little girl! Such an unusual and comical story almost leaves you sad to finish reading!
I always find it difficult to read a book by Gaiman if it has not been illustrated in some way by Dave McKean; its as if they share an imagination. There is something about the way they work together that just makes for a winning kids book. Dave McKean has been one of my favourite illustrators since BEFORE i wanted to be an illustrator myself, and i can honestly say this mans talent (and certainly this book, being the first one of his i ever owned) has been an inspiration. such a clever combination of warm colours, delicious textures and unusually producted but certainly endearing characters had me reading again and again! (and I'm 22!!!)
This is most certainly a book i remcomend for children who like a good scare but with a happy ending, with lots of humor and classic child intelect thrown in. I love a story where the little girl is the heroin!

Absolutly five star every time!!

Dark and Very Funny
This is one of those very rare books which manages to satisfy every reader. It's a picture book, which is great to read to smaller children (ones who like being frightened I might add). It has a sophisticated text, and the pictures are really detailed, which makes it great for older readers, and it's hilarious, well written and nicely tense, which makes it perfect for parents.

The artwork is more reminiscent of a graphic novel than the usual standard of illustration in kids' books. It adds a real air of menace to the story, which revolves around a family who find that wild wolves and their evil, partying ways are gradually breaking into the house from the cavities in the walls and taking over, forcing the family to retreat and come up with a plan for reclaiming their house.

It is very, very funny and has some lovely twists. Highly recommended. My four year old loves it, although she is rather macabre, so ordinarily I'd go for six and ups for this one.

Dark & disturbing, just how kids (might) like it.
The prospect of exposing my 5 and 8 year-olds to the writing of Gaiman and the graphical beauty of McKean was one that was far too good to miss, so I bought this book, despite the protestations of my son who was really wanting a book about robots instead. I'm extremely glad I stuck to my guns, though not for the reasons I first intended.
In many ways this book is more of a parent's choice than a kid's choice, as the quality of the artwork is almost too good for children, with Dave McKean's stunning photo-collage style used to typically jaw-dropping effect; I found myself poring over page after page, wondering just how exactly he had put them together them, and where he gets such imagination and compositional skill from. No matter, the art combines with a relatively slight yet sinister tale to create a whole that seemed to me much greater than its parts. There are better stories out there for sure, but few have given me as much continued enjoyment as reading and re-reading this book.
As for my robot-loving son, I've yet to read this with him for fear of the nightmares it is sure to inspire. I'm at last enjoying uninterupted nights' sleep, and having spent years convincing my children there are no monsters in their room at night I'm not sure I am ready to have it undone by this story. Maybe when they're older...