''The Wolves in the Walls'' is a book by
Neil Gaiman and
Dave McKean, published in 2003, in the United States by
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...
, and in the United Kingdom by
Bloomsbury. The book was highly praised on release, winning three awards for that year. In 2006, it was made into a musical which toured the UK and visited the US in 2007.
Neil Gaiman has said the story was inspired by a
nightmare his daughter Maddy, then aged 4, had that there were
wolves
The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...
in the walls.
In the story the protagonist, Lucy, hears wolves in the walls of her family's house, but her family does not believe her until one day when the wolves come out of the walls.
The book is notable for Dave McKean's art, which utilises many different techniques, including photography,
computer-generated imagery and drawing to achieve its effect.
It is also available in Spanish, German and Italian.
Reception
The book was very well received, with positive reviews for both the text and art.
It won awards for the
''New York Times'' Best Illustrated Children's Book (2003), the IRA/CBC Children's Choice (2004) award and the
British Science Fiction Association
The British Science Fiction Association Limited is an organisation founded in 1958 by a group of British academics, science fiction fans, authors, publishers and booksellers, in order to promote the writing, criticism, and study of science fiction ...
award for Short Fiction (2003).
Adaptations
Stage adaptation
In 2006 ''The Wolves in the Walls'' was adapted for stage, as a "Musical Pandemonium" of the same name, with music by Nick Powell to which Neil Gaiman contributed some lyrics. It was co-produced by the
National Theatre of Scotland
The National Theatre of Scotland, established in 2006, is the national theatre company of Scotland. The company has no theatre building of its own; instead it tours work to theatres, village halls, schools and site-specific locations, both at h ...
and
Improbable theatre,
and premiered at the
Tramway in Glasgow in March 2006, before touring the UK for the rest of the year, winning
TMA Best Show for Children and Young People for 2006. In October 2007 it was staged in New York,
off Broadway at the
New Victory Theater
The New Victory Theater is a theater at 209 West 42nd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, near Times Square. Built in 1900 as the Republic Theatre (also Theatre Republic), it was designed by Albert Westover an ...
, for a two-week run. The production was very well received.
VR adaptation
In January 2018, a ''Wolves in the Walls'' VR adaptation was released for
Oculus Rift
Oculus Rift is a discontinued line of virtual reality headsets developed and manufactured by Oculus VR, a division of Meta Platforms, released on March 28, 2016.
In 2012 Oculus initiated a Kickstarter campaign to fund the Rift's development, af ...
and
Oculus Rift S
The Oculus Rift S is a virtual reality headset co-developed by Lenovo Technologies and Facebook Technologies—a division of Meta Platforms.
Announced in March 2019 and released that May, it is a successor to the original Oculus Rift CV1 mode ...
headsets by Fable Studio, a venture headed by
Edward Saatchi and
Pete Billington and staffed by former employees of
Oculus Story Studio, as its premiere title. The VR adaptation was well-received, and in August 2019, ''Wolves in the Walls'' won a Primetime Emmy for outstanding innovation in interactive media. A second chapter of ''Wolves in the Walls'', ''It's All Over'', was premiered at the April 2019
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was f ...
, and a third and final chapter, ''They're Everywhere'', released in November 2019. All three chapters were ported to
Oculus Quest
The Oculus Quest is a virtual reality (VR) headset developed by Oculus, a division of Meta, Inc., released on May 21, 2019.
Similar to its predecessor, Oculus Go, it is a standalone device that can run games and software wirelessly under an ...
in November 2020.
References
External links
LibraryThing pageHarper Collins book information pagePromotional video for US stage show
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolves in the Walls, The
2003 children's books
Books by Neil Gaiman
British picture books
American picture books
Fantasy books
HarperCollins books
Books adapted into plays
Off-Broadway musicals
British children's books