''Wolf'' is a young-adult novel by

Gillian Cross Gillian Cross (born 1945) is a British author of children's books. She won the 1990 Carnegie Medal for ''Wolf'' and the 1992 Whitbread Children's Book Award for ''The Great Elephant Chase''. She also wrote ''The Demon Headmaster'' book series, ...

, published by Oxford in 1990. Set in London, it features communal living, terrorism, and wolves (according to

Library of Congress Subject Headings The Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) comprise a thesaurus (in the information science sense, a controlled vocabulary) of subject headings, maintained by the United States Library of Congress, for use in bibliographic records. LC Subject ...

) and a teenage girl in relation to her mother, father, and paternal grandmother. Cross won the annual Carnegie Medal recognising the year's best children's book by a

British subject The term "British subject" has several different meanings depending on the time period. Before 1949, it referred to almost all subjects of the British Empire (including the United Kingdom, Dominions, and colonies, but excluding protectorates ...

. Coincidentally, ''

The Cry of the Wolf ''The Cry of the Wolf'' is a novel for children or young adults, written by Melvin Burgess and published by Andersen Press in 1990 (). Set on the island of Great Britain, it features a grey wolf raised partly by humans after learning only a l ...

'' by Melvin Burgess, featuring a grey wolf as the main character, was the highly commended runner up. Holiday House published the first U.S. edition in 1991.

Plot summary

Cassy is a teen-age girl who lives with her father's mother. Her grandmother and her mother both maintain silence about her father. One night she is awakened by mysterious footsteps. The next day, as always when the footsteps are heard, she is sent away to live with her lovely but feckless mother, Goldie, who is

squatting Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

in London. Mother, her partner, and his teenage son "make a living with innovative programs for schools: combinations of fact and fiction, drama and story, skillfully blended to challenge stereotypes and spark original thinking." Now they are producing a play about wolves, and they encourage Cassy to become involved. Cassy does her best to adjust to the new way of life, which is challenging in several ways. She cannot escape a sense of dread, a feeling that she is being stalked. Her nightmare is Red Riding Hood "recast by her own fears". Eventually she learns the secret she has been protected from all her life: her father is a notorious terrorist, a bomber in the Irish Republican Army. "WOLF by Gillian Cross"
''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'' 1 March 1991. Retrieved 2012-11-23.

References

External links

* —immediately, first US edition
"Gillian Cross: Wolf" at the author's website
* {{Little Red Riding Hood 1990 British novels 1990 children's books British children's novels Works based on Little Red Riding Hood Carnegie Medal in Literature winning works Novels about terrorism Novels based on fairy tales Novels set in London Novels by Gillian Cross Fictional wolves Oxford University Press books

Plot summary

See also

References

External links