Once upon a time in a small cottage at the edge of the woods lived a Little Girl and her Father. No one went into the woods, The Little Girl never did.

The woods is where the Gunnywolf lived. But one day, just inside the woods bloomed a beautiful flower. And, the Little Girl forgot all about the Gunnywolf. She stepped between the trees and picked the flower.

And she sang. More blossoms beckoned and deeper into the woods skipped the Little Girl. The tale continues with a predictable meeting of the Little Girl and the Gunnywolf, and an unpredictable outcome as a result of that meeting.

I think the retelling of a scarey boogey man, of some type, is found in the folk lore, worldwide, in many if not all cultures.

During the three decades plus I spent in the classroom with small children, Kindergarten and First Grade, I found many children harboring varying degree of fear regarding the unknown, including a monster under the bed, or in the closet, or in the dark, or …

While this particular boogey man, The GunnyWolf, was new to me as I returned to the classroom a decade ago, I found the book included in the tomes designated by Harper Trophy, the reading series used by my new school district in Osage County, Oklahoma.

What a joy, and what fun I have had reading and re reading this small book filled with delightful illustrations trailing across each 2 page spread. Text is kept to minimum, at children’s Primary reading level, and repeats the alphabet in upper and lower case many times.

Offered in lively, cadenced read-aloud text writer Delaney’s child centered book re-counts the narrative of the Little Girl who had been cautioned against going into the woods where the scary Gunnywolf lives.

As each school term begins I do not prep the kids re things children may fear and why they need not.

The Little Girl skips from page to page, building her bouquet, and suddenly one or another of the children notices that EYES seem to be peeking at the Little Girl.

Oh My! Now, each page is carefully scrutinized as I read, and sing the letters of the alphabet. Little people sing the letters with me, and look to see if the eyes are present.

While the Little Girl is oblivious; WE see what she has not yet, eyes and then a nose, and FANGS indicating something really frightening hiding behind the tree, in the bushes, very close to the Little Girl who sings her alphabet song as she picks posies.

And then, suddenly, There he is! What to do!! The Little Girl and the Gunnywolf begin a race through the woods. It seems the Gunnywolf is captivated by the alphabet song. Each time The Gunnywolf sings the Gunnywolf falls asleep.

Pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat, away she runs. Un-ka-cha! Un-ka-cha! HERE HE COMES.

The song, sleep, chase is repeated as the Little Girl continues her dash for home with the Gunnywolf right behind continues.

Gunnywolf asks the Little Girl to sing the alphabet song time and again. One thing I have always enjoyed when reading to Little People is that they have invariably joined in as I read. We sang, looked for the Gunnywolf, whispered pit-a-pat and shouted Un-ka-cha! Repeated the letters of the alphabet and just enjoyed every page of the tale.

I particularly liked using The Gunnywolf in the classroom. The alphabet is included in lower case and upper. We sang the lower case softly and upper case louder. I particularly like that the letters are presented in varying beginning and stopping points. So often children can sing The A B Cs, if they always begin with A.

The Gunnywolf helps children begin anywhere and sing the letters in order. I found children today are as worried about the unknown, unseen SOMETHING in the closet, under the bed, in the dark, has not changed much during the many years I taught in the classroom.

Children present before me during this last decade of classroom teaching have been as worried about the unknown as were the children I taught back at the beginning of my career.

I like writer Delaney’s offering as another book I have used to help Little People deal with the scary. The familiarity of the alphabet, well done illustrations, and gentle outcome all help children verbalize their own concerns as we chat about the tale following the reading of the book.

The Gunnywolf was a permanent fixture in our classroom where children chose the book for free time and DEAR reading, often asked to take it home to share with parents, and was the book chosen by the child of the day as one of the works I read at the close of the day.

The tale has just enough mystery to pique the interest of Little People, but is not so worrisome that children hide, cry or fear the outcome.

Happy to recommend Antoinette Delaney’s The Gunnywolf for the classroom, home library, gift giving and reading for pleasure. This is a read to for the K 1 set, a read alone for primary level readers

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Reviewed by Molly's Reviews

molly martin

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Title Gunnywolf Series: Trophy Picture Book Series

Paperback : 32 pages

Retold and Illustrated Antoinette Delaney

Publisher: Harpercollins Childrens Books (April 1992)

ISBN-10: 0064433048

ISBN-13: 978-0064433044