The Snarling of Wolves

Vivian French's The Snarling of Wolves is a funny fairy-tale adventure for 10 year olds that starts with a howl across a moonlit forest.

What happens

Alf the bat has just been made a fully paid-up Batster Super Spotter. He's VERY proud of it. Now he's got a trainee, a tiny bat called Billy who says "Woweee!" at almost everything.

Alf's plan is a night-time tour of the Five Kingdoms. It takes in the Ancient Crones at their loom, a sleepy Gracie Gillypot and one shuttered window where somebody unfriendly is watching. An eye at a knothole winks at Billy, and it isn't a nice wink.

Meanwhile Queen Bluebell of Wadingburn has had enough of her grandson Vincent. He thinks royals are better than everyone else (and he'd like a cream cake now, please). So Bluebell announces she's retiring. Then she wonders out loud whether Gracie, who isn't royal at all, might make a better queen than either of her grandchildren.

Vincent is horrified. He sets off by coach to tell tales to the other royals, with the two bats riding along in the hood. By the time they arrive, Billy has gone. Something far away has been calling him back, and he couldn't say no.

It's silly in the best way. The royals are ridiculous. Vincent turns up with cherry pie down his coat and mustard on his chin, and Princess Nina-Rose announces she's going to faint, then recovers the moment she has something to say. Alf is a joy too, full of what Unc says and very keen to tell Billy he's the best hero ever.

It isn't all giggles, though. The first pages follow a lonely werewolf who was cast out by her own kind, and Billy being pulled away by a will stronger than his own is properly creepy. If your reader likes a shiver tucked inside a joke, that's exactly the mix here.

What to read next

Alf and his friends have clearly had plenty of adventures before this one, so the characters arrive already knowing each other. You can dive straight in. But if you'd rather meet everyone from the start, The Robe of Skulls is where Gracie's story begins, with a sorceress who wants a new dress and will stop at nothing to pay for it.