A Wolf At The Door

by Nick Ward

The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, and Little Bo Peep run to Little Bear's house to escape the wolf at the door. But is a wolf really chasing Little Bear¹s friends, or are they imagining things? Open the door and find out!

Genres: Picture Books, Folklore, Animals, Fantasy, Childrens, Fairy Tales, Humor

32 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2001

Reviews

[Jaden]

Traditional Literature

This is such a cute story that incorporates many characters form different traditional literature. A goat, the three little pigs, Little Red Riding hood, Cinderella, Goldilocks and a few others all show up to the little bears house because they were being chased by the big bad wolf. When all of them arive, there is another knock at the door and father bear opens it. It was little wolfie who just wanted to play with everyone else. It was his older brother who everyone was running from.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

EA loves this story. She is practically telling the story to me as I attempt to read it to her at night. The illustrations are fantastic and the story has a nice little build up to it with lots of imagery. It has a nice little twist at the end too, for those that can understand the irony. Overall, a great children's book for a four-year-old!

[Mary Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, as it brought in many different fairy tales that many children know and love. Such as Little Bo Peep, the Three Little Pigs, and many more. In the end, it also teaches children a lesson to not always judge a book by its cover.

[Mariana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uma história muito divertida, que junta algumas das personagens mais icónicas do universo literário infantil. A tensão crescente deixa os mais pequenos presos a esta história na expectativa de descobrir o seu desenlace.

[Kristen Dutkiewicz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wolf at the door brings to light the question : is it really as scary as everyone thinks?

[Lisa McKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kid reviews:
5yo: I would say the big brother is the big bad wolf or not?

7yo: 2 stars bc I do not really like the mixups.

9yo: I liked it yeah...

[Kelly Chester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super cute book

[Alexis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how it uses other story characters!

[Megan Cureton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Little Bear was sitting in the chair reading a book while his father was chopping wood someone came knocking on the door. It was Billy, the goat, and he said that a wolf was after him and told little bear to lock the door. Next came the Squealer Boys, or the three little pigs, and also stated that the wolf was after them. Bo, Little Bo Peep and all her sheep, was next and she also claimed that she saw the wolf and ran for their lives because he was chasing them. Next was Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and then Goldilocks. Father Bear came in from working in the yard and asked what all his friends were doing in the house. They explained how the wolf was after them. A final knock on the door came and father bear went to answer. He stated that it was Wolfie, just a little baby wolf that just wanted to play. I thought this book was very enjoyable and I couldn't wait to turn the page and read on. I was excited to see how the book was going to end and to see what the wolf really looked like. I would read this book aloud to my future classroom. I really think my students would enjoy this story and also be excited to see how the story ends. I would also have this book in my classroom library for my kindergarten through third graders to have access to at all times. I really loved the illustrations in this book. This would be a great book to read aloud when you are teaching students to predict what they think is going to happen. This book does an excellent job of having details and little clues in the illustrations for the reader to make predictions of who is going to be at the door next. For example, when they say knock knock, and little bear asks who it is, they don't say their real names, like the Squealer Boys, known as the three little pigs. Which is a good way to have predictions not only from the illustrations but text clues too. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to purchasing it for my future classroom library.

[Kimberlee Gutterman · Rating 3 out of 5]

While reading this book, children can easily make predictions about who is at the door based off the clues they are given. These clues could be what a person says or how they sound when they are read aloud. I really liked how in the pictures you can see out the window and there is always a little something that sticks out to give a hint as to who's at the door. For example, when the goat is at the door you can see two little horns and the top of his head out of the window. This may not be noticed by the child the first time they read it. I think it would be important to point this out after reading the story if they didn't notice because maybe next time they read a book they will remember to use visual skills to help them predict what's going to happen next in a story.

[Kendra Hurst · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was quite enjoyable. I highly recommend to read this as a bedtime story. The illustrations were very well done. I liked the simplicity of them, but the detail that was still present. The book itself was a good introduction to other fairy tale characters. Most of them also encountered the wolf and others that didn't typically. I liked the moral at the end where it was just a tiny wolf. That gave the idea not to judge everyone based on the opinions of others. I also enjoyed the humorous end where the baby wolf said he would bring his big brother tomorrow.

[Kayla Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was very entertaining to read for me. It had a twist to it that I would never have expected. The illustrations were very capturing and inviting. I love that they all gathered at a little bears house to be safe from the wolf and it ends up being a little wolf who will call his bigger brother next time. This added a humor to the story that really made me want this book for my collection for my future children. I feel like the whole story was a twist but a fun twist.

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. I love the way Mrs. Bowels introduced predicting the book. This book allows the students to stay engaged. I liked how this book was a little different than the other books I have read regarding the wolf. At the end of the book the animals realize that the big wolf they were worrying about isn't as scary as they thought. Sometimes you can't always believe what you hear. I think that's a great message to send to the students.

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed how this book combined all of the author's previous book characters. This is a wonderful book to use for the students to learn how to predict what will happen next in the story. I have learned the prediction is something that all proficient readers do when they are reading. It helps focus the mind on the events taking place. This book contains a great deal of these instances by the same event of someone knocking at little bear's door.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this book. This book was good for predicting. I was happy because my prediciton of the ending was close, I predicted that the wolf was playing hide and go seek with the fairy tale characters. I like that this book included so many well known fairy tale characters. I like that this book gives a slight hint as to who the next visitor might be be showing a part of them in the window. I loved the ending.

[Brent Rogers · Rating 1 out of 5]

Little Bear answered the door and it was Little Billy Goat Gruff. He was running away from a wolf. The three little pigs came next, followed by Little Bo Peep and her sheep, Little Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks and Cinderella. There was one more knock at the door and this time Father Bear answered. Who was at the door? It was Wolfie! He's a little bear that wanted to know if Little Bear could come out to play. This is a great book for kids to predict what will happen next.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who keeps knocking at Little Bear's door? This book keeps children guessing all of the way through to the end. The bright illustrations help to give clues when the children are making informed guesses as to what will happen next.This is a wonderful way to introduce picture clues when reading and making predictions. I would love to have this in my classroom when I introduce predictions, as well as using context clues in mini-lessons.

[Kelly Powell]

This would be a great book to read to students when teaching a lesson over predicting. This book isn’t like the other stories we are use to about the big bad wolf and this will cause the students to rely on the illustrations and the wording in the text. This is a fun activity for students because most of them have background knowledge, but make sure you give some examples to the students because everyone might not know of these fairytalkes or folklore stories.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book will appeal to children because of the different fairy tale characters that appear. Little Bear's peaceful afternoon gets interrupted by a knock on the door. Children have fun predicting who will be knocking at the door next, once they notice that the top of the characters' heads are passing by the window.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is good for schema building because it incorporates characters from other well known children's books, Little Bo Peep, the Three Little Pigs, and Little Red Ridinghood to name a few. Before long Little Bear's house is filled with people trying to get away from the big, bad wolf but is the wolf really out to get them or are they making it up?

[Sarah Zimmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This follows the classic stories of "The Three Little Pigs", "Little Red Riding Hood" and more. They all flee to Little Bear's house because they fear a wolf is chasing them. At the end, they discover it is not just a wolf and they all feel very silly when they discover what it is. This is a fun picture book and gives a twist to these classic stories.

[Sammie Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book would be great for sequencing lessons because each time the bear opens the door he lets in a new friend who is running from the wolf for some reason or another. The illustrations are great. This would be a great read aloud for kindergarten or first grade, especially for sequencing lessons. the book could even be acted out easily for a fun lesson.

[Hope · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has text-to-text connections written all over it. If children do not have schema for fairy tales, it would be neat to have children write about the book, then get familiar with the different fairy tales throughout the year and then reread the story and write about it again. It would show children the importance of making connections.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book to use for inferring, questioning, predicting, and visualizing. It includes many familiar fairy tale characters. Children can infer whether the wolf is big and bad. They can question and maybe predict who will be at the door next. They can visualize the wolf and what he may look like.

[Amanda Hicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is adorable! The three little pigs, little red riding hood, little bo peep, Cinderella, Billy goat, and many other fictional characters run to little bears house to stay safe from the wolf. However, is it the big bad wolf we're all familiar with, or some other wolf? There are many opportunities for children to predict and confirm, visualize, and infer from reading this text.

[Candace Kaelin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! I think it is such a good idea how the author cross-referenced other stories and added the other story's characters into his book. I think it is important to have introduced the other stories first, though. This story would be good to use to teach repetition and making predictions. Also, it would be good for making text-to-text connections.

[Alison Durbin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved how this book tied in many of the popular fairy tales we grew up with into one story; I thought it was very clever. I would use this book to practice making predictions with the children. I also appreciated that the book gave hints in the pictures that children could use to help make their predictions.

[Sherry Thornberry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like the way this book is very predictable with clues right up until the very end, and this it kind of throws a curve ball. I also like the way several different fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters were used in the story. I think that gives more kids an opportunity to make a connection. Even if they aren't familiar with one character, they may be familiar with another.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! I had forgotten about a lot of the fairy tale characters that were in this story and was glad to be reminded of my old favorites. I think this would be great to use for predicting in a classroom, though I must say that I predicted the ending wrong myself. I also like that it gave a lot of clues to help you predict who the next one knocking on the door was.

[Jordan Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. It was interesting to see other fairytale characters come into one book. This is a great book to use when you are discussing prediction with your class. The pictures give the reader many hints, and really get their imagination running wild. The book will keep in child engaged. I can not wait to use this as a read aloud in my class!