wolves Quotes

“‘If only, if only,‘” the woodpecker sighs, ‘The bark on the tree was just a little bit softer.’ While the wolf waits below, hungry and lonely, he cries to the moo-oo-oon, ‘If only, if only.‘”

“Some girls are full of heartache and poetry and those are the kind of girls who try to save wolves instead of running away from them.”

I’m a sheep wearing wolves’ clothing in a pack of wolves.

“For he was of the tribe of Wolf.”

“Sometimes, far away in the night, a wolf howled. Then he came nearer, and howled again. It was a scary sound. Laura knew that wolves would eat little girls.”

Dave McKean’s illustrations are both haunting and hilarious at the same time. The wolves are portrayed as drawings made by a child, as it is implied on the front cover of the book. The wolves are also drawn in both a frightening and humorous way throughout the book.

I’ve learned that this tale is conceived with help from the kids of the Gaiman and McKean. Maddy Gaiman has a nightmare of wolves scratching the walls of their house. Gaiman helped Maddy cope with this fear by storytelling, making strategies to escape from the wolves or something like that—and these plotting became a part of the story.

Nobody believes her…until the wolves do plunge out of the walls, invading the house and rendering the family homeless. Lucy is the one who acts to glue the family together. With a Coralinesque bravery and a simple strategy, she goes back to save her stranded toy, Pig Puppet, and in the process they are able to get their house back.

This is a great story about parents not listening to their daughter and said daughter saving their home. It also has wolves...in the walls! It is just the kind of story that should be read aloud, too, full of the rhythms and repeated refrains that fit with oral story telling.

Basically the story revolves around Lucy (aka the girl who cried wolf), who tells her family about the wolves lurking behind the wallpapers. Her relatives however dismissed her fears as a product of her overactive imagination, and they are actually too engrossed into their own worlds to deal with Lucy: her mother (like any mother) is a personification of domestic order, her oblivious father plays tuba, and her annoying brother plays video games.

A great example of an image where the wolves display both terror and humor is in the image of the wolves being shown in creepy shadows as they are watching television and are laughing their heads off.

“The wolves came down to the farm last night. They spoke to me of freedom.”

“Somewhere in this cosmos was Miyax; and the very life in her body, its spark and warmth, depended upon these wolves for survival. And she was not so sure they would help.”

“Any fear Miyax had of the wolves was dispelled by their affection for each other. They were friendly animals and so devoted to Amaroq that she needed only to be accepted by him to be accepted by all.”

″ ‘Wolves are brotherly,’ he said. ‘They love each other, and if you learn to speak to them, they will love you too.’ ”

“The cold chill of fear ran up Miyax’s spine – the wolves would soon depart! Then what would she do? […] Her hands trembled and she pressed them together to make them stop, for Kapugen had taught her that fear can so cripple a person that he cannot think or act. Already she was too scared to crawl.”

“Maybe it’s because of our diet. Hey, it’s not my fault wolves eat cute little animals like bunnies and sheep and pigs. That’s just the way we are. If cheeseburgers were cute, fold would probably think you were Big and Bad, too.”

“The McCrackens. The Herders of the world. Sure, our kind may look a lot like Wolves—large fangs, sharp claws, and the capacity for violence—but what sets us apart from the rest is that we represent the balance between the two. We can navigate the flock freely, with the ability to protect or disown as we see fit.”

″...dogs should not worry dogs where wolves and foxes are to be found in abundance.”

“Why can’t I ever get you, Polly, when that other wolf managed to get his little girl.”

″‘If you keep looking out for fun,’ the old man said, ‘you will see the Wolves as like as not. Or won’t you?‘”

“Good and evil are a great deal more complex than a princess and a dragon, or a wolf and a scarlet- clad little girl. And is not the dragon the hero of his own story? Is not the wolf simply acting as a wolf should act?”

“Listen to them—the children of the night. What music they make!

I knew then that to struggle at the moment against the Count was useless. With such allies as these at his command, I could do nothing.

“The Wolves are a free people,” said Father Wolf.