The Wolf Who Cried Boy By Bob Hartman

Book Genre: Fable

Publishing Info: Scholastic, 27 pages

Awards or honors received: N/A

Summary: This story is a version of “The Little Boy Who Cried Wolf”. It is about a wolf family that ate the same things for dinner every night: sheep, deer, squirrel, and muskrat. Little Wolf constantly complained about what Mother Wolf made for dinner. So his parents told him that if he found a boy in the woods they would catch him and eat him for dinner. Little Wolf decided to play a trick on his parents. On his way home from school he cried “boy!”. His parents came running and looked everywhere but couldn’t find the boy. Mother’s dinner burned while they were gone and Little Wolf thought it was funny. The next day Little Wolf did it again. The same thing happened and dinner was ruined again. That night Father Wolf overheard Little Wolf telling a friend how he tricked his parents. After school the next day Little Wolf came across a troop of boy scouts. He shouted and shouted but no one came. He ran home to tell his parents, but they didn’t believe him. From that day forward Little Wolf never shouted boy again.
Personal rating and reason for rating: *** Very entertaining way to introduce Fables to your class.

Reading level: 3.1

Interest level: K-2

Possible uses of the text: This story would be used in a unit about Fables. Discuss the moral of the story. Use a graphic organizer to show the difference between this story and “The Little Boy Who Cried Wolf”. Then have students write their own Fable. Begin with a planning sheet: moral of the story, characters, setting, etc. Write a draft with a title, then edit and publish with illustrations.

Potential Problems or Difficulties: None