I loved that this story surrounded a pair of siblings and the brother telling stories to his sister. It's a sweet family story of a mash-up of some children's classics and ever present sibling disagreement. The illustrations were funny and well done in a very classically illustrated fashion. It's a sweet book to add to your collection and one that even as children age would be enjoyed.

Thoughts from the Mini-Me-Reviewer: It's a mix of little Red Riding Hood, the Three Little Pigs, and perhaps Arthur and the Round Table. The person telling the story is the little girl's brother. The girl keeps telling the brother that the parent's stories are better. So the brother keeps having to tell different ones, but there is always ice cream in there. I liked the story because it was a good fiction story mixed with fantasy and a mix of small kid stories.

This is exactly the kind of thing thats goes on with the 5+ age range of kids. Once my 5 year old saw the wolf and a kid, she went she knew this story. In few pages, she wanted another story. Thats exactly what happens in the book on the next page. How do you read a story for two different age ranges. One doesnt want gory things to happen in their book. How do you make it interesting matching all the things your readers want in the book and also not have the what they dont want. This is a mish mash of two stories where the wolf is populary known and then the 5+ realises that all the important things are missing, so a third strain with a common theme connecting the three finally has all the missing points. If you like to shake up your bedtime story and are ok with some disorientation, then you will love this book, like we did.
Just liked the path taken, there are many other paths that could be taken and end up with different endings. And yeah, there's loads of icecream for everyone.
The illustrations of the wolfs teeth as mountains is very engaging.

I enjoyed the child voices in this book as a boy tells his sister his version of some fairy tales. A great introduction to fractured fairytales.

I received an advance reader's copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

This is a cute story about a boy and his sister sharing stories together. The boys little sister likes the classic stories told with the wolf like her parents read them to her but the big brother only likes books where nothing bad happens because he is the hero in the story. He then comes to realise that always being the hero can become boring and then tells a tale they'll both enjoy.
I thought this book was a fun read.

A hearty attempt by a little boy at revising traditional tales to avoid mishaps results in his sister’s lack of attention. Famous stories such as “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” and “Little Red Riding Hood” have their chance at improvization. Children might have to be familiar with the stories that are revamped in this book in to appreciate the plot and humor here. In that way, they could react with a “no, no, that’s not how it happened.”

'This Is the Path the Wolf Took' is a story about Gabe who loves to narrate stories to his little sister. He tailors the stories and makes sure they are devoid of villains and bad events. But his sister doesn't like his versions and throws a huge fuss every time he narrates a story, How Gabe tackles this issue forms the rest of the story.

The story was fresh and new. The illustrations were colorful and interesting. I loved the tale that he concocted to entertain and captivate his little sister.

This book got me confused.what was this all about ?Brother changing bad parts of fairytales for the sister and makes stories boring but actually he made this book way too boring to read .This boring that I actually thought to DNF it .Somebody please explain .
The illustrations are nice though.

A lovely book for children with beautiful illustrations that shows that one can be very creative when it comes to the well-known fairy tales. The story and outcome may differ based on who is reading/narrating it. Nevertheless, it became a bit repetitive and we wished there was a little bit more to the relationship between brother and sister.

A cute book that reimagines classic wolf fairytales. I liked the idea, but found the execution to be lacking. I think it could have been more interesting or funny. The illustrations were wonderful, but the text was a little choppy. Overall, a cute story that young children will enjoy.

Thank you NetGalley and Kids Can Press for providing this ARC.

Title: This is the Path the Wolf Took

Author: Laura Farina

Illustrator: Elina Ellis

Publisher: Kids Can Press

Date: September 2020

Pages: 48

Let me get the positive thought about this book out of the way early so there is no mystery or beating around the bush: the artwork, as I expected, was wonderful. Kids Can Press does a really good job selecting artists for their stories. I always appreciate the effort that goes into nice colorful drawings.

That's the easy part.

Now, the hard part.

I'm on the fence about this book to be honest with you. It's not because there's not a good idea behind it--who among us hasn't reimagined a story the way we would like it, where we are the hero, and with a bit of dramatic flair worthy of our best daytime 'stories' (i.e., soap-operas)? It's not that the story wasn't funny--there were some truly comedic moments. It's not that drawing upon time honored fairy tales (e.g., Little Red Riding Hood) to make a point is a bad idea.

I think part of the point attempting to be made is that stories need to have 'bad' or 'sad' parts and that stories made up of only 'good' or 'happy' or 'hero' parts are somehow falling short or missing the mark.  Could be. And if that is the point, then that's not a bad point to be making. It's not that reimagining stories with all the bad parts gone is a terrible thing either (I can't tell you how many times I have wondered what would have happened if Edmond Dantes had never been imprisoned at the Chateau D'If and instead had married Mercedes, become captain of The Pharoan, and enjoyed his father's company.) Frankly, I think we all often think about what life would be like with all the bad or sad or terrifying parts removed.

Then there might not be any heroes. But maybe a world without heroes isn't such a bad thing.

With that being said, I find it a bit ironic that the storyteller in the story, Sir Gabriel, lost his audience (his sister) as part of the plot. Then Gabriel comes to his own realization that the is 'part of a very boring story' (!). I'm not sure if the author is communicating her own boredom to her readers or what. It was kind of funny though. What does an author or storyteller have to do to hold the readers' attention? Can stories be told without conflict? Without heroes? It's actually a rather brilliant question she is asking.

Kids probably won't care all that much. It is fairly classic in the sense that it borders on the edge of the hero journey. It's close, not perfect, but close. The hero does go through a crisis in the story and has to re-evaluate everything. The hero does reemerge to fight another day.

It's not a frighteningly terrible story. It think it has some places where students can be invited in to offer up opinions or make predictions about what's going on in the story. There are some relatable characters and, to be sure, I like that she was able to make allusions to classic fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs. This provides the teacher or parent with opportunities to branch out and read those stories to children too. And that is always a good thing.

I think I'm where the average is on this book as far as stars are concerned. I hope the author will write more children's stories. Let's see where she takes us...

4.5/5 stars.

(I started out at 3 stars for this book. As the day went on, I slowly started changing my mind. I think the average is 4; it gets the additional half star because I like the presence of the hero element.)

I was provided a free Adobe Digital copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my fair and honest review. This I have done. There was no other considerations made in exchange for my review.

This Is the Path the Wolf Took by Laura Farina is a fun book about facing your fears (of scary stories), and making yourself the hero in them by being confident. It resonated with my son, who is very timid of scary topics in books, so it will be great for other kids like him.

Gabriel is telling his little sister a story.
But in THIS story, "Sir Gabriel" keeps coming in as the saving hero.
It's a unique twist on some classic children's literature.
My kids enjoyed the story but also the beautiful illustrations!

This reminded me of a Mo Willems and Lauren Child story mashed together.
Pretty cute and Sir Gabriel was a delight - especially when he made ice-creams sundaes for everybody.
Great illustrations!

Thank you for the download! My daughter loved it! this book did feel a little bit familiar, but overall it was cute and enjoyable.

I did read this as a digital copy via Netgalley. I believe it would do even better as a print oversize book for classrooms or as a moderate size picture book for older kids to read to younger siblings. It is the story of one child reading to another.
Although it does not say this, the person reading may have been afraid of some of the stories he heard told in a traditional manner. Let's face it - however you feel about the wolf as an adult, as a kid he was scary! This boy is trying to protect his little sister and glosses over some of the violent aspects of the story. She is not having it. She knows there is more to the story and a true story needs conflict and a problem to solve. The child reader's problem is how to add those dangerous parts without making the story too scary.
I think the author and illustrator did a wonderful job. There are parts of the delightful pictures to discuss. Enough there to create another story! And the words tell a nice story. You can discuss with your kids WHY the brother is telling it differently than Dad tells it, or why he prefers she doesn't call for Mommy.
There are some chuckles in the book too. Nicely done.

Poor brother just wants to tell a good story to his little sister! Anyone with siblings can relate to this. It gives a nice twist on a classic story!

The illustrations were beautifully done but the story was a little lacking. I did think the idea of the older brother wanting to tell his baby sister less "scary" versions of the classic fairy tales was cute though.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This story was trying to get a twist on fairy tales with wolves in them but it is pieced together and not a very immersive story. Gabriel is reading stories to his little sister but changes some major points in the story because it scares him. Baby sister likes the original stories better. So it’s a journey of finding. A happy medium.

I'm not sure why I didn't like this one more. Sometimes books just don't "click" with the reader.

Gabe is reading stories to his little sister, but he doesn't like for anything bad to happen, so he swoops in as Sir Gabriel to save the day. His sister eventually gets tired of listening to the stories (because she knows how they're supposed to go; even this toddler seems to realize that you can't have a great story without conflict) and Gabe finally gets the message that his stories are boring. So he allows a villainous wolf into his story... and manages to still have a happy ending.

Part of the problem here will be if kids aren't familiar with stories like "Little Red Riding Hood" and "The Three Little Pigs". (I mean, they should be, but not everybody reads to their children, unfortunately, and younger kids especially might not understand how these particular stories usually go... and why Gabe's sister doesn't like the sanitized versions.)

The pictures are kind of cute, but the story just doesn't work for me. Your mileage may vary, of course.

Gabe, being a brilliant big brother, is re-telling some favourite traditional tales to his little sister. However, in his versions of the story, nothing bad ever happens. So the big bad wolf does not eat Granny or blow down the pigs homes, instead Sir Gabriel dashes in on his trusty steed and scares the wolf away.
“His armour was made of truth, his shield was made of glory and his sword was made of courage.” This line sums Sir Gabriel up perfectly. He is ready to scare the wolf away each time. Little sister is not at all pleased with Gabe’s versions of the stories.

Can brave Sir Gabe, the best big brother, save the story and entice his sister back for story time?
He will need to use the power of his imagination, twists on traditional tales and funny endings but I think his sister will appreciate his efforts this time!

I adored this book and will certainly be looking to buy a copy. Perfect for reading aloud and sparking imaginations for storytelling. I love anything fairytale and traditional tale based so this fits into my world brilliantly.