Title Page

book jacket

end Pages

(identical front and back)

Cover

The title is in a font resembling handwriting, suggesting that Lucy, holding a pencil, wrote it. This goes along with the idea that she made the story up because it could be interpreted as her writing.

Both Lucy and the wolf inside of the wall look at the reader, giving the cover demand and drawing the reader in, inviting them into their story. She is demanding attention, from both the reader and then her family in the opening pages. Some may argue her need for attention is what creates the story.

Lucy drawing the wolf on the wall indicates that she wants the other characters in the book to see that there are, in fact, wolves in the walls. These hints, from the start, indicate to the reader what they can expect when they enter the story.

The cover of The Wolves in the Walls gives the reader a good sense of what they can expect from the book...

The two amber wolf eyes stare back at the reader, demanding attention and recognition, something not given by Lucy's family in the early stages of the story.

The blend between real pictures, such as the tuba, and other elements such as the title appearing to be cut out of cardboard, reflect the possible blend between truth and what was created. The collage format, known as pastiche, is also a fascinating texture, enticing the reader to touch the pages.

The wolves are peering out of the holes in the letters in the cardboard, hiding behind it like the walls in the story.

The quote included on the book jacket closely resembles a quote found on the fourth page, and talks about the noises in the walls. It reads "There are sneaking, creeping, crumpling, noises coming noises from inside the walls." It is an adaptation of the actual quote, "They were sneaking, creeping, crumpling noises." The noises in the wall is what jump-starts the story, inspiring Lucy to claim there are wolves in the walls to her busy family.

Credibility is given to the author and illustrator through their personal bios on the right jacket and the mention of another work by the same author and illustrator, Coraline, that was a New York Times best-seller. The personal bios on the right jacket, therefore seen at the end of the book, offers the finished reader a greater connection to the story by learning about its creators.

The jacket is green, mimicking the cover and a similar color scheme found throughout the book. By giving a brief glimpse into the book, the reader gains the context and mood of the book, they will want to know more about why the wolves are inside the walls and how they got there.

There are many ways to interpret the black end pages depending on the lense through which you view the story. In one interpretation, It can be argued black is used in a double spread for both end pages to contributes to the mystery, the unknown; what really happened? In another, it is possible that it could represent nighttime, indicating the story is all a nightmare of Lucy’s blowing a common phrase (everything's over when the wolves come out of the walls) out of proportion. A third way to interpret them is that they could also mean that Lucy feels empty because her family ignores her. So, in order to fill the pages up with a story, she created the wolves which allowed her parents to spend some time with her. Then, when the story resolved, Lucy created the elephants because her family fell back into their old ways of not spending any time with her.