By Ben Miller Elisa Paganelli
A hungry wolf struggles to maintain his fearsome reputation when the local forest creatures refuse to take his villainy seriously.
Ben Miller introduces the Fairytale Woods series with Diary of a Big Bad Wolf, a funny retelling of classic folklore from the antagonist’s perspective. We meet Laurence, a wolf who was recently kicked out of his pack for being a “weakling” and is now starving after a long winter. Laurence tries his best to hunt down Little Red Riding Hood and the three pigs, but his clumsiness and a series of meddling neighbors keep him from his goal. There are four books in the series so far, giving readers a long stretch of reading material to enjoy.
This series works well for a classroom because the diary format breaks the story into manageable chunks. These short entries allow reluctant readers to feel a sense of accomplishment quickly without getting stuck in dense chapters. Elisa Paganelli’s energetic artwork fills the pages, providing clues that support vocabulary development and plot comprehension for students still mastering English. Using familiar characters like the Three Little Pigs gives learners a head start on the context, making it much easier to focus on the humor and the wolf’s evolving personality. This could be a great tool for discussing how different perspectives change a story during your next literacy circle.
**Total Books in Series:** 4
**Best Starting Point:** Diary of a Big Bad Wolf
