Rating: 
Summary: Modern Mythmaking
Review: Neil Gaiman's success story has a new chapter added to it every couple of months, and 'The Wolves in the Walls' is definitely worthy of its own chapter. In it, Gaiman takes that narrative camp-fire-style story-telling and one ups it by telling a story that seems dug out of all our own subconsciousnessess. It feels like a lost fairy tale, like something old; this is Gaiman's talent. He tells stories that feel like they've been around forever, as if he's only the medium of the tale and not the creator. But 'The Wolves in the Walls' is new. It's got 2003 stamped on the inside cover. And though passages like "If the wolves come out of the walls, then its all over" seem like old aphorisms handed down by your grandmother, they're not.The story is simple on the surface (as any good children's story should be), funny, and downright creepy. Though the wolves wear socks and watch TV once they come out of the walls, young impressionable children might still get the spooks once the lights go off. Lucy, our reluctant hero, is the only one in the family that believes there are wolves in the walls. Everyone else says they're just rats or bats or mice. But she's convinced. And when the wolves do come out, well, it's all over. Dave McKean has worked with Gaiman many times before and plays an integral role in the mythmaking presented here. His art includes real-objects layered into all types of different art styles: from brightly colored paints to hard black penciling on white. Subtleties in each panel add immeasurable depth to Gaiman's story as well as fodder for an adult or young'uns imagination to barrel through. If there is anything negative to be extended to the book, it's regarding the length... but while it's sad as an adult to be able to read through a book so quickly, it's wonderful to be able to read it again and again, especially out loud, with a captive audience, in a creaky old house.
Rating: 
Summary: Why Wolves?
Review: Nice artwork, good writing, but why wolves? Does this story perpetuate an irrational fear of a species that has all too frequently been misunderstood and threatened, to a point where the wolf occupies only a fraction of its original habitat? Are we born fearing wolves, or is that an acquired trait?
As someone who has worked at protecting this species and supported groups who have tried to reintroduce the wolf into certain habitats, I raise the question if this book doesn't continue a long tradition of misunderstanding this animal.
This book plays on alliteration, (Wolves - Walls) etc. But the book could have used a species that is more dangerous to humans, especially children. Why not 'Cougars Behind the Cabinets', or 'Grizzlies in the Garage'? But why base a children's 'horror' story on a relatively innocent creature anyway? Is it because wolves sing in what some would call 'haunting' howls? (I would call it 'hauntingly beautiful', by the way.)
I guess this book does no harm if parents explain to children something of the truth about wolves after they read the book.
Yes, there's a message here. You can conquer your fears if you're aggressive enough. I guess that's what hunters do when they gun down wolves from helicopters. If you act aggressive to a wolf, it will likely run away, not so with a cougar or grizzly.
It's the idea of humans coming out of the walls that creeps me out. I would welcome wolves. If wolves are in the walls, it must be that the house was built on their territory in the first place.
OK, the book: Beautiful artwork, fun story and very well written, if you take it as complete fantasy, (and how else could you take it?). Don't let my ranting deter you from buying it.
And about those elephants...
Rating: 
Summary: Great book!!!
Review: Ok let's get started. Five stars for Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman Because after I read this book I was laughing my head off! This book starts out when Lucy hears thumping and crunching while she is sleeping and agrees to herself that there are wolves in the walls and goes to tell her mom, dad and her little brother but they think she's being silly. But unfortunately Lucy's right. Read this book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By: Jake
Rating:
Summary: Not just for kids.
Review: Once again, Neil Gaiman has done it again, "it" being crafting an imminently readable and likeable book for all ages, from 6 to 60, as he did with "Stardust" and "Coraline." "The Wolves in the Walls" has that same eerie, disjointed, disquieting look that "Coraline" had, though not as powerfully as the latter work. It is about a girl named Lucy, who lives in a lonely hill top house with her parents and brother. One day she hears wolves in the walls, but no one believes her. When the wolves do come out of the walls, her family has to decide how to deal with it. Ostensibly a book geared toward younger readers, this book works on other levels for the critical, interested reader of all ages. The illustrations by Dave McKean are very much sort of a dark collage, a collage by a madman. Everything is rendered in geometric, shadowy disarray... the mundane becomes sinister, and pervasive throughout the book is a sense of subdued yet black surrealism, featuring angles and proportions of insanity, much like "Coraline." The book speaks to childhood fears through an adult milieu, while addressing adult fears in a more subdued manner. While this book does not deliver the emotional punch or satisfaction of "Coraline" it is nonetheless a good book, one I highly recommend. It also has a great sense of humor, rare for such a dark work -- who can not laugh at the mother who makes enough jam for an army, or the wolves "dancing their wolfish dances." Check it out.
Rating:
Summary: Dark Modern Fairy Tale with Superb Illustrations
Review: So many of today's children's books are all full of white light bunny fluff. We protect our little darlings from anything that might be frightening. But children know better. They know about the monster under the bed and the reasons not to be alone in the dark. They KNOW, and when we adults tell them that "there's nothing to be worried about" they KNOW that we're no help. Neil Gaiman and David McKean have offered children of all ages the gift of knowledge--in this wonderful volume comes the knowledge that at least SOME adults KNOW what can lurk in the unknown. In this story, the adults (and even the kid brother) are SO wrong about what lurks within the walls, but Lucy, the hero, KNOWS. She plays the part of a child in a fairy tale, leading the "knowing" adults to KNOWLEDGE, and finally to overcoming their fears and setting things right. The illustrations buttress the message of this neo-fairy tale and increase the delight of reading it or having it read to you. Impactful, but not so dark as stories where witches want to pop plump children into their ovens. All my kids, their friends, and my friends who are children at heart LOVE this book. Buy it already!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Librarian/Mother responds
Review: Speaking as a librarian, I would say this "picture book" poses a problem because it is not for the usual picture book audience, young children. Actually, I am not sure who it is for. Older kids who like R.L. Stine's horror stories might like this, but the book is so short it really doesn't give them a substantial read. Speaking as a mother and a critic of the culture, I would not bother with this dark book for my school aged, sensitive children. The strawberry jam takes on the appearance of blood on the wolves' faces, and the family scared out of their home, sleeping on the night ground is quite horrible. You see the girl curled up in a fetal position on the black grass between knarled trees with visions of the wolves torturing her pet stuffed animal pig she left inside. As in the author's other book, Coraline, the parents are ineffective. The main character looks a lot like Coraline, with sunken,black, buttony dots for eyes, and yellow-gray skin. As a critic of the ugliness and fearfulness expressed endlessly our culture, I reject this book. True, the family goes back inside, tired of the wolves finally. But that does not negate the overall, unnecessary darkness of the book. The ending uses a pat children's book technique, the same as used by David Small's book Imogene's Antlers, where the girl's antlers are gone, but the she awakens with a peacock tail to deal with. So after the wolves, we learn there are elephants (in the walls.) Why, Mr. Gaiman could do sequels galore to this gem, kind of like Nancy Shaw's Sheep in a Jeep series (Sheep in a Shop, Sheep on a Ship, Sheep Out to Eat, Sheep Take a Hike, etc.) But I'm not holding my breath for The Elephants in the Walls or whatever else may stampede across the paper out of Mr. Gaiman's dark pen.
cz
Rating:
Summary: Great book, great story
Review: Take an interesting offbeat story, add in an intriguing graphic style for the illustrations and what do you get? A wonderfully put together and thoroughly enjoyable book. I'll admit that I have NO IDEA how this book would play with children. I bought it because I like much of Neil Gaiman's other work and enjoyed The Day I Swapped My Dad for 2 Goldfish. I actually liked this book a lot more than the goldfish book. I thought the story was better, I liked the illustrations more, and I had a lot of fun reading the book. Two thumbs up! Also, I do think that this book would be okay for readers below the age limit listed here. It is a little on the scary side, but it does have a pretty much upbeat ending that resolves most of the scary bits.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, funny and intelligent
Review: The art work (including the lettering) in this book is beautiful, scary and immensely interesting.
The story is funny, suspensful and best read aloud. In Neil Gaiman's books children are people (that just happen to be younger than other people). They often realize adults are busy or condescending or wrong and they are quite independent and brave. Allowing children to face, and conquer scary things, with and without help is a great lesson for most of us. Enjoy the art and share the story at bedtime (but leave the night light on all night).
Rating:
Summary: Another masterpiece from Gaiman & McKean
Review: The most brilliant artistic team the world of comics and illustrated literature in the world strikes again. Mind you, The Wolves in the Walls is, while filled with Neil's wonderful and bizarre imagination and Dave's distorted and surreal characters, and while the plot is absolutely nightmarish, isn't as disturbing as their previous collaboration, Coraline, or even The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish. Instead, The Wolves in the Walls is a classic, imaginative and intelligent children's tale, beautifully written and gorgeously visualized. Like the best of children's authors, Neil makes every single word count, his writing funny and nonsensical and yet incredibly sharp and precise, written in the finest tradition of the genre. Dave is at his astonishing best, combining hyperrealism with surreal images, and at times colleges and photographs. Essential for fans of Gaiman and McKean, a great book for your kids, great book for adults, a masterpiece that belongs in every home.
Rating:
Summary: Funny. Not Scary
Review: The previous reviewer who talks about "bloody jawed wolves" and "wolves with blood on their jaws" obviously hasn't bothered to read the book before warning people not to read it. There's no blood in this book. These are funny wolves, and at one point they get into the jam-pots and jam is smeared on their mouths and paws. The worst that the wolves do is play video games and eat popcorn and smear jam around. It's a really funny book. With lovely pictures.
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