Favorite children's books: Big Wolf and Little Wolf

I'm reading American Library Association Notable Children's Book Award winners for my Literature for Children class. Of the books I've reviewed so far, my favorite has been Big Wolf and Little Wolf by Nadine Brun-Cosme and Olivier Tallec (Enchanted Lion Books, 2009). It was originally written in French, and I hope to get a copy of the French version so I can compare the translation with the original. It's a story about a wolf, who thought he enjoyed being alone, befriending another wolf whose presence he originally found annoying and intrusive.

Big Wolf lives in a tree by himself and likes it that way. Little Wolf comes for a visit, uninvited, and Big Wolf reluctantly lets him hang out for awhile. He shares a corner of his leaf blanket, a few pieces of fruit, and lets Little Wolf follow him to "his space" at the top of the tree. He even feels sorry for Little Wolf when he stumbles on a few branches, although he is secretly thankful for the stumbles because he no longer feels he has to worry about Little Wolf eventually being bigger and stronger than he is. Big Wolf then goes for a walk, leaving Little Wolf behind, and when he returns, Little Wolf is not waiting for him. Big Wolf is surprised at how upset he is, realizing that Little Wolf had "taken up space in his heart, a lot of space." Big Wolf waits a very long night for Little Wolf to return, during which time he did not eat or do any of his exercises that he enjoyed. He promised himself that if Little Wolf returned, he would share more of his fruit, give Little Wolf a bigger corner of his leaf blanket, even teach him some of the exercises that are specifically his. Little Wolf eventually does return, and Big Wolf is overjoyed. Both wolves admitted that they were lonely apart.

One of the greatest aspects of children's books is animal characters with human characteristics. Wolves are pack animals, as are humans. Other beings come to take up space in our hearts when we least expect it.