Wolfie & Fly, #2
Written by Cary Fagan, Illustrated by Zoe Si
Renata Wolfman has no friends, and she likes it that way. There was that one weird time when her next door neighbor, Fly, came over to her house and they went on an actual undersea adventure in her cardboard box submarine, but that’s in the past and things are thankfully back to normal. Renata even has the house all to herself for the afternoon until Fly climbs through her window (she won’t open the door) and asks her to help him figure out what is wrong with a song he made up to sing in the school talent show. Pretty soon she finds herself beating out the rhythm alongside him on a kitchen drumkit. Fly insists they are now a band, and must practice for the talent show in front of an audience of his stuffed animals. Pretty soon it feels almost like they are performing a real concert, and being chased by adoring fans. Can Wolfie and Fly get away from them and make it to the talent show on time?
This is a nice sequel to the first Wolfie & Fly book, which I highly recommend. The characters and illustrations are still great, and it is actually nice to see that the episode in the first book didn’t magically make Wolfie no longer an introvert. From here the series has the potential to become extremely formulaic, but the interesting ambiguity of whether these episodes are cases of vivid imagination or actual magical realism remains. I’m also starting to have questions about the increasingly mysterious figure of Uncle Bob and his place in all of this. Either way, if there are more volumes this promises to continue to be a cute series.
Review by Joshua Whiting, Library Media Program, Educational Technology Dept. Media Center
Rating: ★★★★✩ (4 stars)
Interest Level: Grades 1-6
Wolfie & Fly, #2
Band on the Run
Written by Cary Fagan, Illustrated by Zoe Si
Tundra Books
90 pages
Release Date: January 9, 2018
It does sound like a cute series. Thanks for the review.