Review - Mr Wolf's Pancakes

I was lucky enough to be sent a 25th anniversary edition of this from the publishers, but we have our very battered, very well-loved bought copy too!

Mr Wolf's Pancakes by Jan Fearnley, published by Farshore

 

 

 Can you believe this iconic picture book is 25 years old?! I couldn't...until I thought about how long I've been reading it for, and how many pancake days it's seen! This was part of all my pancake days as a teacher and has come with me into bookselling storytimes too, so we're going back a good fifteen years.

 

Mr Wolf's Pancakes and pancake craft at storytime this week. 

And of course, we've been reading it with Peapod ever since he was little too.

 

And despite now also reading comics and early chapter books, Peapod still returns - often, not just on Pancake Day - to this beloved story of Mr Wolf, his very nasty neighbours and their just desserts. AND HE EVEN READ SOME OF IT HIMSELF THIS EVE 🥹😍  *PROUD MUMMY MOMENT*

If you're unfamiliar with the story, Mr Wolf is hungry for pancakes, but doesn’t know how to make them. Still, he sets out to try, hoping his neighbours might help.  

 

But, everyone refuses – from Wee Willy Winky to the Three Little Pigs, Red Riding Hood to the Gingerbread Man, no one will help read the recipe, write his list, count his money or carry the ingredients. And they’re really rather mean about it too! Poor Mr Wolf isn’t deterred though. He works hard, figures it all out and with no small effort conjures up a pile of pancakes that smell deliciously inviting…  

 

Of course, now his neighbours want to help eat the pancakes, but what will Mr Wolf do?  This is a fantastic twist on Little Red Hen tales, with a deliciously dark and satisfying ending that always makes me grin. 

 

It's a book that has it all - familiar, fairy tale characters but flipped (excuse the pun!) so we see them in a different light; a character struggling with some of the things they might struggle with, but also with the perseverance to keep trying at them; the repetition and structure that makes it so easy for little ones to familiarise themselves with it and join in with it and retell it, and of course that deliciously dark ending! 

 

We absolutely love it and I hope it will be remain a well-loved fixture of our bookshelf, and our pancake days, for many years to come!

Five years of Pancake Day fun, with Mr Wolf's Pancakes always a part of it!