Aaron Blabey has made a name for himself with his highly original picture books. His bold humour and eye-popping, mischievous artwork are a perfect foil for unexpectedly tender moments and off-the-wall characters. This translates perfectly into a new series for young readers, which presents traditionally ‘bad guys’ (a fairy-tale wolf, a thuggish shark, a droll snake and a wise-cracking, gassy piranha) in a quest to turn their lives around. Their first mission is to rescue puppies from the city pound. Poor wolf, the mastermind of this scheme, has a huge challenge ahead of him because the other three just want to eat everything. But he is determined to twist his own fairytale and change his reputation. The story works like a very long picture book or a very short graphic novel in the sense that the illustrations are of equal importance, and the text is very spare. This new series will be devoured, whole, by 6-9 year olds with a cheeky sense of humour.

Emily Gale