Wolfie

Emma Barnes's Wolfie is a funny, gently magical story for 9 year olds about a girl whose new pet is quite clearly a wolf.

What happens

Lucie's Uncle Joe always brings a present. This time it's a dog. At least, he says it's a dog. It's bigger than Lucie, with a silvery coat, very sharp teeth and cold blue eyes (and it isn't at all keen on vegetarian dog food).

The grown-ups laugh when Lucie says it's a wolf. Then, at midnight in the kitchen, it speaks. Her name is Fang-That-Bites-Sharp-In-The-Forest, and she'd rather you didn't shorten it, thank you.

Fang is the best thing about this book. She's grand and extremely polite, slightly offended by most of what humans do, and she sees the world completely like a wolf. Why keep rabbits in hutches when you could eat them? (Luckily the rabbit she nabs from next door is only stunned.)

The running joke is that nobody notices. Mum and Dad decide she's a German Shepherd. When a toddler in the park points and shouts "Wolf!", Lucie laughs loudly at the silly idea, and everyone goes happily back to the swings. It works on a bus and in a skate park too.

Underneath the jokes there's something tender. Lucie is new in town. She gets teased about her red hair and hasn't made any friends at school. Fang tells her the best kind of wolf can fend for itself outside the pack, and it's lovely to watch Lucie carry that into the playground with her.

Then there's Marcus Mainwaring from next door, a spy and a sneak who's disliked Lucie from the start. He overhears Fang talking. And he knows exactly what might happen to a talking wolf if the wrong people found out.

It's the kind of book that's great to share, with lots of chat between Lucie and Fang and a wolf who gets all the best lines. It would suit a reader who likes their magic with plenty of giggles and a proper friendship at the centre.

What to read next

If you've got a reader who dreams of an extraordinary pet, The Boy Who Grew Dragons is a lovely next step. Tomas brings home a strange, glowing fruit from his grandad's overgrown garden, and something is about to hatch out of it.