Visual elements and design
The author leaves many gaps toward the end of the book, for example the book end with Lucy's claim that their are elephants living within the walls, but no other evidence is supported by Lucy's claim except that her family soon finds out that their are elephants living in the walls as well. The only things left from the elephant is a simple print of the elephant's foot and a stepped on jelly sandwich leaving the reader wondering what happened next.
Each illustration in The Wolves in the Walls directly relates to the text. The illustrations help to intensify the story. For example on page 8 if the reader was just given the text "In the middle of the night when everything was still, she heard clawing and gnawing, nibbling and squabbling [...], the wolves in the walls, plotting their wolfish plots, hatching their wolfish schemes." Without the illustration the reader could assume that Lucy is not scared of the wolves, but when the reader is given the picture, the reader understands how truly terrified Lucy looks. Her eyes are very wide and she is seen sinking down into her bed, without the illustration the reader could not understand how truly frightened Lucy is.
In the the 24th opening of the book, the page is a full bleed of the wolves emotions when the people first jump out of the walls. This page also has the same background making it look like the wolves are just drawn on and not in reality. The wolves take up most of the page and are very close to the reader making the reader feel bad for the wolves getting kicked out. The wolves are also facing to the left of the page because they are returning back into the walls, where they are most comfortable and safe. The sporadic writing brings up the fact that this is a time of panic for the wolves.
