20. Lone Wolf Goes to School. Kiah Thomas. Illustrated by K-Fai Steele. 2024. 56 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, early chapter book, animal fantasy]
First sentence: Wolf could count his friends on one hand. Three, two, one...NONE! And that was the way he liked it. Wolf ate alone. Rode his bike alone. Played tennis alone. But there were some places that Wolf couldn't be alone.
Lone Wolf Goes To School stars a LONE WOLF who is set in his ways. Throughout the chapter book, Lone Wolf is given plenty of opportunities to change his ways, to welcome the world, to have his heart grow 'three sizes too big.' Yet time and time again, Lone Wolf prefers to stay true to himself--a loner. There's a scene that seems almost predictable. You would naturally expect in a children's book especially that the 'lesson' or the 'moral' or the 'point' of the story would be to show Lone Wolf making friends, of learning to enjoy being around others, etc. But the author is playing with audience expectations. (If not expectations of children then expectations of adults. HENCE why it is so funny.) Buster Keaton explained this best when talking about gags: "I always want the audience to out-guess me but then I double cross them."
LONE Wolf Goes to School was clever and funny. I highly recommend.
© 2025 Becky Laney of Young Readers
