Age 2-6

On the title page of Gravett’s picturebook, a trompe l’oeil of a postcard and a pamphlet on a mat gives the usual book information, but with extra intriguing details. The pamphlet advertises the book, but shows the author’s name as Grrrabbitt, concentrating the two protagonists — a growly wolf and its rabbit prey — into one word. The pamphlet also has a sticker with rabbit-related puns and the stamp on the postcard depicts a wolf’s head. The deserving winner of the Macmillan prize for new illustration, Wolves uses a delightful melange of skilful drawing with a big soft pencil, textured gouache expressing rabbit fur, simple but cleverly self-referential text, and collage that includes a library ticket and a letter from the library (which can be extracted respectively from a pocket and an envelope). As the rabbit, with its arching ears, learns about wolves from its library book, a wolf stalks. Two endings are offered: in one the rabbit is eaten; in the other the rabbit and the wolf make friends. By the time another delivery of punning post arrives on a doormat in the endpaper, we, too, have been swallowed up by the book and have become very fond of it.

(Macmillan £10.99)

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