Wolves in the Walls Discussion Questions
As we’ve discussed, in order to teach something, we have to have mastered
it ourselves. So while not all of the questions below would be appropriate for
children, critically engaging with them will help you “master” the text in such
a way that will then allow you to have enough understanding and literary
fluency to teach this text to children.
A. Examining Lucy’s World
1. Her mother makes seemingly dozens, perhaps hundreds, of jars of jam.
Why?
2. Her father plays the tuba all the time, apparently for a living—what
thoughts do you have about this?
3. Why does no one believe Lucy when she suggests there are Wolves in
the walls?
4. Once the wolves come out of the walls, her father suggests they move
the Arctic Circle, her mother suggests the Sahara Desert, and her
brother suggests outer space. What does Lucy suggest and what do
you make of these suggestions?
5. What does it mean that no one believes Lucy when she suggests there
are Wolves in the walls? Why do they not believe her?
6. The story plays with at least two familiar, “traditional” stories that
children in the west tend to learn when they are quite young. What are
these two stories, and how are these stories used in the book? What
does their presence say about the age range for the book?
B. Examining the themes and presentation of the text
7. What themes are present in the text?
8. How do the illustrations contribute to or amplify the themes? Focus
particularly on the artistic style and the use of color. Be detailed.
9. How does the font choice of the words in the text contribute to the
meaning? Does it contribute to the themes?
10. What is the overall the “feel” of the book? How does it compare
with the content of the book?
C. Philosophical and theoretical questions
11. What makes something real? Consider the pig puppet and the
family’s disbelief in Lucy’s claims.
12. What does “it’s all over” mean in this text? How does that
meaning change throughout the text?
13. Is the saying “if the wolves come out of the walls, then it’s all
over” helpful to Lucy and her family? List common sayings that you
know that function similarly.
14. Some might argue that themes of Absurdism are present in this
text: the talking pig puppet, the wolves who talk and dress and live in
walls, an easy solution to a previously unsolvable problem, all in a
world that seems otherwise “normal.” Is this really absurdism, or
something else? Why or why not?
*Absurdism basically states that because everything is meaningless,
it’s also wildly unpredictable and bizarre, and for some, there is joy in
that unpredictability and bizarreness. These features noted in the text
are “Absurd” in that they follow no pattern and are thus unpredictable
and irrational: not all animals live in walls (though apparently
elephants also do), not all puppets/stuffies speak wisdom, and the
solution to the catastrophic, world-ending problem is to simply to go to
back into the house, via the walls. In many schools of thought,
Absurdism follows Nihilism, which is summarized as the belief that life
is meaningless. While absurdism agrees with this, it takes it step a
further to embrace the strange and irrational, which can in turn bring
its own meaning. Absurdism is also generally considered a very adult
theme.
