03/01/2020
PreS-Gr 2—A shepherd and his family and a wolf and its family live on a mountain. Both of them love their home. They delight in its beauty and navigate its known and unknown elements. Despite its dangers, the mountain is where they "feel safe and happy." Aubineau tells two identical stories using the same words. On one side of the book is the shepherd's tale, and on the flip side is the wolf's. Modest drawings and bold colors illustrate the vastness of their mountain homes from each of their perspectives. Though their ways of life are different, their existences are not. VERDICT A worthy addition to any library or classroom exploring themes such as perspective, citizenship, cohabitation, and nature.—Maegen Rose, Rye Country Day School, NY
2019-10-13
Told in two separate stories, the perspectives of a wolf and a shepherd living on the same mountain are presented in this picture-book import from France.
Thanks to a clever design, readers can begin from either side—the physical book flips so the story begins from either end. One side presents the story from the wolf's perspective; the other, from the shepherd's. The wolf's story begins with an arresting illustration depicting the wolf looking down on the shepherd and flock. "This, here, is my mountain," the text reads. The wolf goes on to tell how it eats, sleeps, and lives on the mountain and how there is danger, but it is also where the wolf feels safe and happy. The wolf relates how it is wary of the "Other," who has been feared for generations. The wolf is referring, of course, to the shepherd, who carries a long gun in the accompanying illustration. The wolf's story ends with the thought that while it's hard to share the mountain, it "surely…is big enough to fit everyone who loves it." Flipping the book, readers begin the shepherd's story—and, in a powerfully teachable moment, it is exactly the same, word for word, as the wolf's. Peyrat's illustrations, which use delicate lines and a palette of greens, blues, and Alpine white, never fail to impress with their subtle visual linking of the two stories and their bold, atmospheric design.
Truly a book for today and our changing future. (Picture book. 3-9)
