Big Wolf and Little Wolf, The Little Leaf That Wouldn’t Fall is the second book about Big Wolf and Little Wolf. Sweet and humorous, the story is amplified and deepened by Tallec’s illustrations, which are bold in perspective and rich with feeling.
The book begins, “High up in a tall tree was a little leaf,” and it is Little Wolf’s need to touch this leaf and the fact that it will not fall that create the drama. Big Wolf refuses Little Wolf’s request that he climb up and get the leaf several times. “Wait,” he tells him. “Eventually it will fall.” But the leaf doesn’t fall. Winter arrives and the leaf is still there, high up in the tree. Then one morning Big Wolf wakes up, stretches and says, “I’m going up.” He says it just like that—simply to see Little Wolf’s eyes sparkle. At first his climb up the big tree goes well, but the higher he goes the more slippery it gets and the more dangerous. Little Wolf waits below wondering whether such a little leaf is worth such trouble after all. To climb to the top of a frost covered tree isn’t easy, and what if something should happen to Big Wolf?
As with Frog and Toad and George and Martha, there isno Little Wolf without Big Wolf, so things have to work out somehow! And they do. Surprisingly and beautifully.
This second Big Wolf and Little Wolf title is a lovely story about two friends and the many ways in which friendship teaches patience, boldness and love.
