Wolf's Coming!

by Joe Kulka

As a distant howl echoes through the forest, animals quickly stop what they're doing and run for home. Look out―Wolf's coming! As the shadowy figure gets closer and closer and the day draws to a close, the animals shut the door, pull the shades, and turn out the lights. Soon the wolf's glowing eyes appear at the window and the front door opens . . . But things are not as they seem in this suspenseful, clever story, and it's the reader who's in for the biggest surprise of all!

Genres: Picture Books, Storytime, Childrens, Animals, Fiction, Humor, Wolves

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic art and a story with a pleasant twist!

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

All the cute animals are running and hiding as the big scary wolf approaches.

Find out what's really going on in this great read-aloud with a fun twist waiting at the end.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this one - I always use it for my birthday storytime and have read it with a variety of ages. You can really adjust the level of scariness depending on how you read it. Carrot pizza! Look for the blue balloon and pet spider!

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story builds mounds of suspense while everyone is running to hide from the wolf. You gotta read this story with expression. I recommend this book for 1st-4th grades.

[Rheta Thola · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book seems scary until you read the ending. Good illustrations. Great ending for kids(especially after having a series of birthdays).

[Marissa Sansone]

Title: Wolf’s Coming!
Author: Joe Kulka
Illustrator: Joe Kulka
Genre: Online Book
Theme(s): Party, Rhyming, Birthdays, Animals
Opening line/sentence:
A distant howl rides the breeze,
Echoing through all the trees.
Brief Book Summary: When the animals in the forest hear a distance howl, they all get scared and start to run home. As the wolf gets closer and closer to them, they run into a house and hide, shutting all the blinds and being quiet. The front door opens, and everyone yells SURPRISE! Everyone has fun at the surprise party while enjoying cake and pizza.
Professional Recommendation/Review #1: (Horn Books)
(5) K-3 At the first sign of Wolf's shadow, the animals grab their children and run for cover into a dark house. All is tense until Wolf opens the doors and finds...a surprise party in his honor. The rhyming text is singsongy, and the slick illustrations are uneven in quality but effective in conveying a sinister mood.
Professional Recommendation/Review #2: (PSU University Libraries)
Hazel Rochman. The Booklist.
A scary story with a cozy ending is always shivery fun for reading to young preschoolers many times over. Bright, clear computer graphics show small animals fishing and playing in the woods, the piglets and rabbits in jeans, shirts, and caps. Then they hear a distant howl echoing through the trees. A shadowy figure becomes a dark monster getting closer and closer. It is a wolf in suit and tie, huge and glowering ("The moonlight shines on his fangs. / His belly growls with hunger pangs"). Adult animals shoo the small creatures inside, where they pull the shades, and hide behind an armchair-until the wolf opens the door, and surprise! It's happy birthday to him. Safe at home, kids will enjoy the mounting suspense, and feel smug about the happy ending.
Response to Two Professional Reviews: Both of these books reviews are positive. The second review inserts in-text citations, which really gets the message across about the suspense of the story. The rhyming nature of the plot keeps readers interesting and eager to find out the ending. Both agree that the surprise party is a happy ending to the story that is unexpected.
Evaluation of Literary Elements: I liked reading this book on tumblebooks.com. The pictures kept my attention while the reader read the story to me. The ending being a surprise party is very surprising to readers, including myself. The suspense of the story is fun for readers of all ages to enjoy.
Consideration of Instructional Application: This book could be introduced when talking about different kinds of well-known stories. Since it is similar to “The Big Bad Wolf,” we could introduce to kids that nothing every story will end exactly how you think it might. Also, this book uses rhyming on every page. This could be a good review of rhyming. The plot is easy to follow, and since the words are rhyming and predictable, children will enjoy reading it.

[Brooke Bradford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plot: A howl in the woods carries out to the land. All the animals hear the howl and they all start to run, and hide as fast as they can into the house in the woods. Everyone must be quiet because wolf is coming and he is right outside. As Wolf finally opens up the door to peek in everyone is hiding. All of a sudden the lights come on and everyone yells surprise. It is Wolf's Birthday and they through him a surprise party.

Literary Merit: The setting of the book is very vivid and the characters are all portrayed well. The setting takes place in the woods which works well with the types of animals that are in the book. The characters are also well portrayed, because most of the animals that are shown in the story would be scared of a wolf and run away and hid from it. The setting of the book the whole time feels like it is going to lead up to something bad, but then the story takes a twist and it is a surprise party for the Wolf. "Tightly, Tightly, shut your eyes. With all your might yell...Surprise!" The book is like this throughout the whole way through until the very end, This surprise would not work if it wasn't for the way the setting was set up and the way the characters were portrayed.

Genre Considerations: This book is a Wanda Gag Read Aloud book award winner in 2007. It got this award for being a picture book, having a rich vocabulary, and is able to maintain the child's attention.The pictures are very vivid and show the emotions of all the animals. This would give a child the impression that something bad is going to happen and the animals need to run and hid as fast as they can. It is a suspenseful book that keeps the child wondering what it about to happen. This book won this award for its ability to not only have a great story line and ability to read aloud, but it has a twist at the end that would want the reader to read it over and over again.

Classroom connections/ Personal response: This book I feel could be used with the book The Three Little pigs. The students could then explain the differences and similarities between the wolf in both stories. This book could also be used in science with a nonfiction book about wolfs, because the story does talk about the wolfs ears and sharp teeth. This book is a great book to share with children, because it is not the typical outlook on the big bad wolf, and it also helps with the imagination on suspense and not knowing what is about to happen.

[Nancy O'Toole · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Joe Kulka's Wolf's Coming, a Wolf is arriving, and all of the animals are running away and hiding in a house. Only when Wolf arrives, he's surprised with a birthday party by all of his friends. Kulka expertly structures this book in order to create a feeling of foreboding and suspense. When the book begins, the left hand page features a large illustration of the animals reacting to the news of the Wolf, while the right-hand page is a solid color with the story's texts and small illustrations. As the Wolf get's closer, the colors on each page get darker and darker. When we switch to see the Wolf's journey, the art is presented in two page spreads with the text directly on top of the images. This successfully separates the Wolf's experience from the other animals. The twist in the end is well done, when it is revealed that the animals do not fear the Wolf, but were running away so they could hide in time to throw his surprise party. The colors immediately change to bright, friendly colors as everyone celebrates Wolf's birthday. The illustrations are bold and attention grabbing, the text occasionally breaking out into a more stylized font to effectively highlight important parts.
Recommended Grade Level- Pre-School
Notes- This book would lend itself well to a dramatic storytime
(This review was written as part of an assignment)

[Manik Sukoco · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book opens with a slightly spine-tingling picture of the woods at early sunset, with wolf-howling heard in the distance. Rabbit, raccoon and pig families begin pulling their youngsters toward home, hustling their babies together. Wolf gets closer, the animal families rush faster. The animals all pile indoors, turn out the light and hide as Wolf (looking suspiciously like a Wall Street executive) makes his appearance. "WOLF'S HERE!"
"The front door opens with a creak. The big wolf leans in for a peek." And then... well, I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise, but I'm sure you can guess that no rabbits, raccoons or pigs get eaten.
This story is a perfect blend of scary and humorous for the pre-school crowd. The suspense builds throughout the book, which makes the giggle at the end that much more enjoyable. The clear and bold illustrations also help to build the suspense, but they also don't quite fit. The animal's expressions betray actual fear, not just the nervous anticipation you would expect based on the ending. It seems like the illustrator could have added a bit of a wink that would signal what's coming to the observant reader without losing the surprise.
Nevertheless, I recommend this book for the daring pre-schoolers in your life.

[Rosita · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a red riding hood story. The wolf had roar and the forest animals were running to hide inside a tree. The wolf was looking for them. The rabbit pull-dowm the shade and the pig turn off the lamp, so the wolf can't see us at all. All the forest animals need to hush, hush now. Because the wolf is here. the wolf enter the tree house with his worry eyes so he peaked inside. Everyone shouted "SURPRISE" to the wolf. It was the wolf's surprise birthday party. Everyone was laughing have so much fun! Celebrating the wolf's birthday.


Learning Experience: The teacher will have several different shape of boxes that are empty. The children need to design their own personal box, then take it home with instruction to place personal things about how they are: Where they were born? What is their favorite color? What is food? What are their hobbies? All of these question parent can help the children so they will be able to represent it in small group.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.75 stars I was a little worried about this book. ON the front page you see all these animals with really worried looks on their face, and a sinister looking wolf lurking behind the curtain. I was thinking this was a bullying book or how to deal with a bully or making a bully your friend.

This books is a very worn library book...in fact this book has a quarter of one page missing..so in my world... that is a GOOD sign that this is a well loved book!!

At the second to last page it gave me a HUGE smile and I thought... "This books is awesome!!" The pictures are great, the story is nice and flows with nice rhymes... just a very nice book.

This book is not at all what I thought it would be about....but it is very lovely! Why can't it be a 5 stars....can't give everything 5 stars... I want to be very sparring with 5's but this one was pretty dang close. Has all the elements of a great book!!! <3 <3

[Laura Mueller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laura Mueller
February 4, 2015
EDL53500 Library Materials for Children and Youth

Title: Wolf Coming!

Author: Joe Kulka

Plot: All of the animals are going into hiding and warning of the wolf coming. The rabbits, the pigs, the racoon and even the spider are taking shelter. Then, the wolf enters the house and everyone yells, "Surprise!" They were having a surprise birthday party for him with cake and everything!

Setting: the forest

Characters: the wolf and other forest animals

Point-of-View: third person

Themes: suspense, not-so-big-bad-wolf, birthday

Style: This books is written in a very suspenseful style and then there is a huge twist at the end that the reader is not expecting.

Copyright: 2007

Reflection: I loved this story because it's a different take on the typical folk tale of The Three Little Pigs or Little Red Riding Hood. The wolf ends up being friendly with the other animals and that is the big surprise at the end.

[Donnalehning · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf...many of the characters in this book! I absolutely loved the twist at the end of this adventure book. My students were sitting up on their knees by the time we got to the end of the book. I won't give the ending away, but my students thought it was terrific. The best part of using this book as a read aloud was that we were able to go back and carefully look at the illustrations after we knew the ending. My students have asked me to read it again and again. I think it is geared for grades k-2, but older students will also enjoy it. This is a WOW book for me because Joe Kulka uses some familiar animal characters from other books and creates suspense with his illustrations. The wolf looks scary in the illustrations. Oh, did I mention that the book is also a rhyming book! teachers can use this book for read aloud, feelings, sequence of events, and rhyming words. This book has it all!

[Holly Crepps · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Wolf's Coming" is a suspensful story about a wolf who is making his way through the woods. All of the other animals start hiding so that wolf won't see them. All of the time, the audience thinks that the wolf is out to get everyone, but the surprise ending makes the story exciting to read. I enjoy reading this book aloud because it gives the reader a chance to change their voice according to the tone of the book. The illustrations in the book follow this same pattern. When the story is suspensful and night time falls, the pictures are dark. However, when the ending comes around there are lights and bright colors everywhere. Each time I've read this book, the children have adored it and wanted to read it a number of times over. They enjoy responding the book as it changes. I recommend this book to show how situations can be different than they seem.

[Eileen Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

When you look at the cover of this book, children and parents alike will think it is another three little pig like story. But boy are they in for a surprise. This story does indeed have a wolf and pigs but there are many other animals in the story. The illustrations in the book are outstanding, almost making the wolf seems scary...but is there a twist to this children story? Will the other animals escape from the big, hungry wolf? Why are they all hiding in the same house? You and your child will just have to read the book to see what happens.
As a teacher, I found this book one that I could use when talking about rhyming words, as each page has a rhyme. As well as adjectives, action words, etc. This book can also be used to teach sequencing a story. There are so many uses that it can be used for. But mainly it needs to be enjoyed by children of all ages.

[Lauren Burrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a wolf that is coming into a town. Through out the story everyone is running and hiding from the wolf making the reader think that they are scared of the wolf. in the end however we realize that this is a friendly wolf and the only reason the people were hiding is because it is the wolf's birthday and they are trying to surprise him. This is a fun book that i would recommend for young children probably preschool to 1st grade. I picked this book as my read aloud because its a fun book to read and i think i would like watching the reaction people have when the find out this isn't the "big bad wolf" most stories depict. The illustrations a good and colorful and go along with the mood of the story.

[Taneika Miliam]

Text –to-Text
I enjoyed reading this book written by Joe Kulka . It reminds me of The Three Little Pigs story with a twist to the end of the story. The story portrays a scary beginning and it ends with a happy ending. That also reminds me of the types of moods changes that the author has. With a group of students, we will discuss the characters feelings . We will use different emotions on a pop cycle stick have the children why they chose the emotion and compare and contrast the stories. This also would be a way to implement the SEL program, which allows the students to acknowledge their emotions and others emotions as well. They can also share their thoughts with peers.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really fun, thoroughly unconventional children's book! Cute animals run around, caught up in a frenzy of hiding because "Wolf's coming!" Dark colors with excellent lighting enhances the mood here...at the end we find out that they're hiding in order to surprise Wolf for his birthday. There is something very satisfying about that page turn where all the critters are at the party, brightly lit, and Wolf is surprised. Kids will love it!

[Kacie Kirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a play on the normal red riding hood story. You think the whole time that the other animals are hiding from the wolf because he is going to eat them but yet they are really having a surprise party for the wolf and that is why they are hiding from them. With this book you can use other of the same stories and compare them. It has a surprise ending and can allow the students to predict what is going to happen.

[Kim Norman · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely brilliant premise for a book: a bit of shivery suspense, (just right for younger children) but a happy ending that makes the reader laugh with surprise. With the author's permission, I use this book as a reader's theater piece during school visits. Students always ask to perform it more than once.

[Jody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story time book. I read the beginning really slow and spooky to give the kids a sense of dreariness and doom, but it doesn't end up that way at all. Be sure to ask the kids at the end if they knew what was going to happen at the end. I got a lot of "Yeah! Uh-huhs!" The illustrations are good-they reminded me of Looney Tunes, but I have to question why the wolf is wearing a business suit.

[Claire Freeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great story for prediction in the classroom. There are subtle hints throughout the book that can lead the reader in the right direction, but the ending will most likely surprise everyone. With the detailed pictures and great story line, this book is bound to keep any child's attention.

[Ina · Rating 5 out of 5]

The big bad wolf is loose in the forest and he is coming…causing all the animals to run and hide. Simple, rhyming text builds suspense as the "shadowy figure" gets closer and closer. My story time audience was on the edge of their seats and laughed when we reached the charming twist at the very end. The illustrations are suitably dark and creepy - but didn't scare my audience. Fun read aloud.

[Coralie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This children's book was absolutely adorable! I was reading it to two kids whom I look after sometimes. I never read this as a kid, so I didn't know what to expect. As I was reading it, I wondered if I should have been reading it to these small children! It was a little creepy!! But by the end of it, it was so sweet and perfect! I want this book on my shelves one day!

[Taryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This twist on a "big bad wolf" story is very enjoyable! I would love to include this book in my elementary classroom while examining other stories that include the "big bad wolf." Students could examine how this story doesn't assume that the wolf is a bad and scary character just because of his stereotype.

[Miranda Middleton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book "Wolf's Coming" because...
-The text has a good flow to it
-It is rich in characters
-There is a plot twist
-And [SPOILER ALERT] this book breaks the Typical stereotype of the wolf being the "Bad Guy"

I would use this book to open my students eyes to stereotypes and talk about why it's bad to judge a person or people group based off of the words of others.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book to some preschool children for story time and they loved it! It starts off with the wolf and it's a little dark and scary until the surprise at the end. It's such a fun book I got nervous with the children and I loved seeing their surprised faces when we got to the last page.

[Roben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another story hour favorite! The kids in the group were two - five years old. I did hear one "I don't like that wolf!" but we kept the story going and they all liked the way the story ended. Highly recommended!

[Nancy Kotkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Suspenseful build to a wonderful surprise ending.

[Urbandale Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is by far my favorite picture book to read aloud! The story is undeniably creepy as the menacing wolf looms closer and closer. The tension rises as the small woodland creatures flee! Rest assured, even the most timid of readers will be delighted at the ending. It turns out you can't judge a book by its cover. This one is a winner for sure! 🐷 🐰