This review has a few spoilers
I was really getting into the story of Little Good Wolf. Little Good Wolf plays with the piggies, cleans his room, brushes his teeth, takes baths, and even reads bedtime stories to himself. His parents are truly fed up with his actions, so they know drastic measures need to be taken. They must send him to Bad School. But no matter how hard his teachers try to teach him bad manners, clubbing people with clubs, and blowing down houses, Little Good Wolf can turn it around to show how to be good (use that club for baseball, blow fire for lighting candles on birthday cakes, slowly savoring a bite of pizza). We toss in an apple with some magic for turning good bad and bad good, and I was a happy camper. Until the end and a dark turn.
I was surprised that Susan Stevens Crummel ended their story on this note (spoiler the apple has not been used by Little Good Wolf to turn himself bad, so the apple is there for some other good critters to find). It was, frankly, not a comforting thought with thinking about what could happen next.
Until then, however, this book is true Crummel. The story is toned in a slightly dramatic manner, but there is also a clever lightness to it as well. There is off-beat humor that came be adult but still child appropriate. The art of Janet Stevens accents the dark forest, the dark school, how bad is in shadows. Then, when good happens, there are brighter colors, light instead of shadows and such.
Probably best for a one-on-one reading and not so much for a group setting as it is busy with the illustrations and you might miss a few details in the artwork, this picture book probably works best for the at least five and up crowd.
