Title: Woolvs in the Sitee
Author: Margaret Wild
Illustrator: Anne Spudvilas
Pages: 40
Published: 9/1/2007
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1-59078-500-2
ISBN-13: 978-1-59078-500-3
Themes: Fear, Homelessness, Danger, Community, Facing Up to one’s fears, Language, Youth Homelessness, Darkness, Hope, The City
This is a remarkable book, truly a masterpiece of a picture book. Breaking a lot of rules, including using phonetic spelling (city = sitee), approaching a story that might not have made it into the normal “children’s book” categories and by the remarkable, emotive and haunting illustrations this book is an instant classic.
Margaret and Anne, the creators behind the beautiful book “Jenny Angel” bring us this haunting story of Ben, a young homeless boy who lives by himself and develops a friendship with a woman upstairs. Ben’s world is one of woolves, it’s a frightening and dark place where his fears are confronted daily and even adults find difficult living in. As we get to know Ben, and glimpse the world from his view we are invited to see through his eyes, travel down the roads he walks, see the things that frighten him and, eventually are invited to join him on his adventure to face up to the things that might scare and frighten others as he decides to reclaim the world as his own…
Probably a book best left for high school students and adults this is a book that should appear on many people’s bookshelves, a true Australian classic…
Resources:
There’s a really good resource that goes along side this book. The Teachers Notes for Woolvs In The Sitee is a fantastic resource that is available for download for teachers and students to go through this wonderful and compelling book in a variety of ways including art, craft, literature, drama… Download the Teacher’s Notes from Penguin.com.au (pdf file)
[rating:4]