Starred Review for Publishers Weekly

"If the wolves come out of the walls, it's all over," is the oft-repeated prediction in Gaiman's latest, a picture book that cleverly balances humor and spookiness in a slightly off-kilter setting. As he did in his novel <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Coraline, the author again introduces an inquisitive girl who lives in a creepy old house with her distracted family. When Lucy hears "squeaking, creeping, crumpling noises" from inside the house's walls, she's convinced it must be wolves. Lucy's parents and younger brother, who don't share Lucy's sharply attuned ear, but have heard bad things about wolves in people's walls, insist any noise must be emanating from something more logical, like rats or mice. But when Lucy's hunch comes true, the family flees—until brave, determined Lucy hatches a plan to turn the tables. Gaiman's text rings with energetic confidence and an inviting tone, even as he leads readers into a bizarre and potentially spine-tingling scenario. McKean (who previously collaborated with Gaiman on the Sandman comicsand <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish) expertly matches the tale's funny-scary mood. Lucy shines as a heroine, standing tall among somewhat tuned-out supporting characters that are an inventive mixture of ordinary and odd. Against shadow-filled backdrops that blend paint, digital manipulation and photography, his stylized human figures look right at home. His pen-and-inks of the wolves, often with a judicious dash of color, suggest that they inhabit a world apart—or perhaps unreal? Author and artist credit their audience with the intelligence to puzzle out the question for themselves. All ages. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Aug.)

ALA Booklist (Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2003)

Gaiman's picture book about one little girl's prescient concern for the sanctity of her home is visually realized through collage and other multimedia images that match the sometimes dark, fantastical story, tone for tone. Lucy is the first to hear wolves in the walls of her house, but her family, each of whom seems oblivious to the ambiguity of his or her reassurances, dismisses her worries. Indeed, the wolves do emerge, and the family decamps to the garden, from which Lucy and her pig-puppet bravely lead the family's charge back to reclaim their house from the jam-eating, video-game-playing pack. With the rhythms of an old fairy tale (the end is a new beginning of trouble in the walls), and startling graphics that force readers to look deeply into each scene, this is a book for the twenty-first-century child: visually and emotionally sophisticated, accessible, and inspired by both literary and popular themes and imagery.

Horn Book (Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 2004)

No one in Lucy's family believes her when she says that she hears wolves inside the walls of their house, but of course she ends up being right. The story is wholly original, and there's no denying the care taken with the mixed-media illustrations. But the book proves overwritten, and the brooding images, featuring sympathetic human characters with dot eyes set on otherwise realistic faces, seem gratuitously creepy.

Kirkus Reviews

You know what they say: "If the wolves come out of the walls, it's all over." When Lucy hears wolves crinkling, crackling, sneaking, creeping, and crumpling in the walls, she futilely attempts to warn her family. Once out of the walls, the wolves proceed to dance "wolfish dances up the stairs and down again" until Lucy, with the help of her stalwart pig-puppet, decides that enough is enough, and leads her family back—into the walls. Gaiman does here for the older picture-book set what he did for middle-grade readers with last year's Coraline , crafting a tale of surreal and sinister adversaries who are bested by a young girl's determination to set her world to rights. The slyly deadpan text, rich in language and wordplay, never doubts Lucy's capacity to manage the chaos, but McKean's illustrations are something else again, their mixed-media creepiness giving the lie to the publisher's disingenuous "all ages" designation and marking it clearly as not for the faint of heart. (Picture book. 7-10)

School Library Journal

Gr 2-4-Lucy hears sounds in her house and is certain that the "sneaking, creeping, crumpling" noises coming from inside the walls are wolves. Her parents and her brother know "if the wolves come out-, it's all over," and no one believes that the creatures are there-until they come out. Then the family flees, taking refuge outside. It is Lucy who bravely returns to rescue her pig puppet and who talks the others into forcing the animals to leave. Gaiman and McKean deftly pair text and illustrations to convey a strange, vivid story evolving from a child's worst, credible fear upon hearing a house creak and groan. Glowing eyes and expressive faces convey the imminent danger. This rather lengthy picture book displays the striking characteristics of a graphic novel: numerous four-panel pages opening into spreads that include painted people; scratchy ink-lined wolves; and photographed, computer-manipulated images. Children will delight in the "scary, creepy tone" and in the brave behavior displayed by the intrepid young heroine.-Marian Creamer, Children's Literature Alive, Portland, OR Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.