ReadItDaddy's Second Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 17th November 2017: "The Ways of the Wolf" by Smriti Prasadam-Halls and Jonathan Woodward (Wren and Rook)

Slap bang in the middle of National Non-Fiction November comes a non-fiction title that completely blew us away with an amazing combination of solid engagement and gorgeous presentation. Our Second Book of the Week is "The Ways of the Wolf"...
"The Ways of the Wolf" by Smriti Prasadam-Halls and Jonathan Woodward has a singular focus on one particular animal species, and it's one that we've always found ourselves drawn to. Not just because of their many appearances as "The bad guys" in just about any children's story you care to name, but because we've absolutely loved watching anything with wolves in it on TV.

These amazingly social animals have oft been unfairly tarred with the 'villain' brush and I'm pretty sure one of the driving factors behind this fabulous book was Smriti making durned sure we saw wolves in an entirely different light.

"The Ways of the Wolf" fuses fascinating facts with the most glorious painterly illustrations. Normally we're fussy when non-fiction books rely solely on illustrations rather than colour photographs. The illustrations have to be top notch and convey their content and purpose without too much stylisation. Thankfully Jonathan Woodward's illustrations here are utterly sumptuous and immersive as you can see below...

Amber eyes in the dark. Wolves are equally happy hunting at night as in the day.

The book describes the wolf's ideal habitat, and their spread across the globe (Charlotte was rather sad to hear that the last wolf was killed in the UK in 1712, in Ireland as it happens).

The book (endorsed and approved by the UK Wolf Conservation Trust) really will change your mind about these fascinating creatures.

"To howl at the moon the whole night through..."

This is far, far more than just another non-fiction book, it's a glorious work of art that delves into the daily life of wolves in such a massively impressive way, largely thanks to Smriti's way of bringing across her fantastic storytelling chops into the realm of non-fiction to really immerse you in the subject.

We can't recommend it highly enough! It's howlingly good!

If you see a wolf smiling, run. In fact if you see a wolf, just run!

Charlotte's best bit: Of course, she could NOT resist those adorable baby wolf cubs.

Daddy's favourite bit: One of the most impressive non-fiction titles we've seen this year. This truly is a gorgeous work of art, worthy of anyone's book collection.

"The Ways of the Wolf" by Smriti Prasadam-Halls and Jonathan Woodward is out now, published by Wren and Rook. (Kindly supplied for review)