The Complete Polly and the Wolf by Catherine Storr, Marjorie Ann Watts (Illustrated by), Jill Bennett (Illustrated by)

Here's a middle grade read that has a series of stories about a wolf who is trying to outfox Polly so he can put her in his cooking pot and have a good meal.  However, Polly refuses to fall for his tricks...

NYR Children's Collection and Edelweiss gave me the opportunity to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published October 4th.

The wolf keeps reading fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks and then tries to apply that technique to capture Polly.  Unfortunately, she's read the same stories.  He has about the same luck as Wylie Coyote with the roadrunner.

He tries dying his fur.  Does he read the directions?  No, he just drinks the dye.  Then he has to go buy more because it didn't work.  Seems he got sick from drinking it but that since it was in a bottle, that's what you do with it.  Even when he manages to get his fur reddish brown so he could pretend to be a fox, it starts to rain and all his color comes off.  Poor wolf, no Polly meal today...

Most of the stories are bit silly.  I liked the one where he steals little Lucy intending to eat her and when Polly goes to rescue her, the child is calling him a dog and demands tea and bread and butter and biscuits and then asks for sugar.  She's eating him out of house and home and he gives her to Polly to get rid of her.  You get what you deserve...

Another favorite story is when they share nursery rhymes.  Polly tells him the Mother Goose version.  He tells her his mom's version which always seemed to be related to food and eating.

This should make little ones giggle and think about how silly that wolf is.  He wears a raincoat downtown and participates in the school play as a sheep.  Why wouldn't you laugh?