William and the Wolves

by Kathryn Cave

William's little sister, Mary, has lots of annoying habits, but the worst is her invention of an imaginary friend. Not just any old imaginary friend, but a lamb. Now Lamb is stealing William's place on the sofa and eating all his favourite tea-time biscuits. The rest of William's family think Mary's adorable, and humour her, but William is irritated. Now he's invented some imaginary friends. Only there are six of them. And they're wolves. It looks like Lamb could be in for a shock ...

72 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 1991

About the author

Kathryn Cave is an award-winning British children's book author. She was awarded the very first international UNESCO prize for Children's and Young People's Literature in the Service of Tolerance for Something Else. The book was later made into a TV series by TV Loonland. A theatre company has adapted it as a children's production, and ran a UK tour in 2009.

Reviews

[SBC · Rating 3 out of 5]

A junior fiction about a boy around 8ish perhaps whose sister Mary has invented an imaginary sheep which keeps meaning he can't sit anywhere, etc (Really his family are shocking! They spoil Mary and are not so interested in him). He decides he'll invent some imaginary wolves and just pretends at first but finally starts vividly imagining them, which gets him in trouble at school (narrated so that you know and he knows totally imagination, but he can actually vividly imagine now - started when he could imagine scenes with his eyes closed). He ends up finding out that Mary named the lamb William (his name) and that she loves him, and they come closer together. She's got another book called "The Emperor's Gruckle Hound" which is a retelling of the prince and pauper but with two puppies which looks quite entertaining.

[Bunny Boop · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a great way of looking at children's imagination. Poor Mary only wanted to save her lamb ...