Kirkus praises K-Fai Steele’s LONE WOLF GOES TO THE LIBRARY in starred review: “Another can’t-miss outing with an irresistible, introverted antihero”
LONE WOLF GOES TO THE LIBRARY
Author: Kiah Thomas
Illustrator: K-Fai Steele
Publisher: Neal Porter/Holiday House
Publication Date: May 27, 2025Anxious, antisocial Wolf avoids, then confronts, a crisis involving an overdue book.
Absorbed in his book, Wolf ignores the postman’s cries of “Mail!” until a flung missive hits his backside. The third notice from an old-school tyrant known as “The Stern Librarian” warns that he will be forever banned from borrowing books unless he returns his tome that very day. Reluctant to go to the library (where he might encounter “noisy kids having fun”—horrors!), Wolf tries unsuccessfully to mail his book back. Next, Wolf encounters the jolly hiker (whom readers may remember from earlier titles) and attempts to trick him into returning the book, but his plans go awry. Wolf’s now desperate to reach the library before the crowd of kids arrives for storytime. Will the imperious librarian and the rude children defeat him? Can he take matters into his own paws and return to his comfortable chaise longue? Surrounded as he is by unsympathetic public servants and literally snotty youngsters, Wolf’s isolationist obsessions are all too understandable. The tightly focused sentences move briskly in Thomas and Steele’s third wryly clever installment; developing readers will giggle while eagerly turning pages. The art again perfectly suits the droll, understated text as googly-eyed, squat kids and a desiccated, grumpy librarian join the crotchety but somehow cuddly Wolf. (His book choices? A Room of One’s Own and Howl.) The human cast is diverse.
Another can’t-miss outing with an irresistible, introverted antihero.
(Early reader. 6-9)