The Girl and the Wolf seems like an old folktale, yet it just came out in 2019. Katherena Vermette did a wonderful job of making a new book seem like a classic by using her inspiration of European fairy stories. She never really liked the idea of the big bad wolf, therefore she made the wolf into the little girl's helper. I really enjoyed the small details within the book and story to make more meaning out of it. For example, the butterflies found on the end pages ended up following the little girl in the first few pages of the book when she becomes lost. This is a small element that students could easily become aware of and give their idea of why the illustrator added that detail. Also, the words the wolf tells the girl when she becomes scared is something we can all relate to. The fox says, "take a deep breath, close your eyes, then look. What do you see?" whenever the girl is scared. She then finds the solution on her own. This is a lesson that people need to learn when stressed.

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This brings me to theme. I believe that the theme of this story is find your own strength in times of need. Even though the wolf is helping her realize this, the girl is finding solutions on her own. The wolf is just guiding her through to get her to make her own decisions. Things can be scary sometimes. For this girl, it was getting lost in the woods right before dark. For a student on the first day of school, it may be who my friends should be, what should I do, or how can I do better? The idea of finding your own strength is something everyone needs to learn and appreciate.

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I do believe that The Girl and the Wolf is a short and sweet book that provides a lot in just 24 pages. I believe a good book still follows the three criteria I mentioned in The Wild Robot: relatable, suspenseful, and emotional. The Girl and the Wolf is relatable to a lot of people. Most people have been lost in their life, whether it was physically or emotionally, and can relate to needing guidance for them to find their way. With that being said, it is emotional. I did feel scared for the girl and then at the end, I felt happy that she found her way. The one thing this book is not is suspenseful. It was slightly predictable what would happen at the end, BUT I do believe that this is a great book for younger kids who may not be able to predict the ending. This book is very similar to The Wild Robot, as stated before. I believe that this book will be able to follow similar lessons that The Wild Robot can, but for younger readers. You can ask the readers, "how do you think the girl felt showing up in the wolf's home?" or "what does being lost mean? How can you find your way back home?"

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This is certainly a book that can create many lessons without feeling the need to be used for standardized testing prep. Kathy G. Short wrote an article called Story As World Making (Short, 2012). She says that without needing to talk about comprehension or reading strategies, students are able to learn more than they already knew just by reading this book. They are learning new advice on what to do when you're scared, how to relate features to the overall story, and old stories that are mentioned in the story. This is another book that we need to use to show the love of storytelling, not just reading. Stories create wisdom and comfort. We can learn something just by reading a story that may be unfamiliar to us. We can. be comforted by the fact that someone else may have felt the way that we have at one point too. We need to encourage the love of reading by providing students with heartfelt stories like The Girl and the Wolf. According to Colby Sharp, readers can do anything when provided a good book (Sharp, 2018). The sense of community that this book brings based on the comfort of feeling found in a time of need is something a lot of kids want in life. Finding coping mechanisms such as breathing and opening your eyes is something kids may not have known before reading this book. Now kids can feel like they can find answers on their own, but can still ask for guidance when needed. 

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