Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
An unnamed child who's missing an arm discovers a strange rosebush while wandering in the woods in this wordless graphic novel by debut creator Warner. After tumbling down a cliffside and emerging from a cave unharmed, the protagonist plucks a rose from the bush. Now she faces the daunting task of returning home through a dark and threatening landscape lit only by the full moon. With no one welcoming her back, the girl puts her rose in a vase before falling asleep and awakens to find a three-legged black wolf with a rose tail. As the two new friends spend the day together and Rose Wolf loses petals from its tail, the girl realizes that the wolf must return home. On their trek through the forest, their peaceful stroll turns perilous when a white wolf attacks and injures Rose Wolf. Warner's sketchy illustrations, rendered using varying red hues, eloquently convey a story of love, friendship, and acceptance that is heartwarming and sweet without being saccharine. Notes about the comic's inception and inspiration conclude. The protagonist's skin tone reflects the white of the page. Ages 9--12. (Nov.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 4 Up--On a summer day in June, a young girl with a residual limb explores the woods around her home and comes upon a bush from which she plucks a rose to take back home. When night falls, the light from a full moon shines onto the rose and a young wolf who is missing a limb appears. But as night turns back into day and the moonlight fades, the wolf's rose petal tail indicates it may not survive for long far from home, and so together, they begin their journey back through the woods to the rose bush the wolf grew from. Broken into seven short but charming chapters and an epilogue, the wordless story (apart from a handwritten note to the protagonist from her mother) relies on gestures, expressions, and limited use of simple iconography in word balloons to successfully convey conversation. The tale makes use of a monochromatic color scheme, with the exception of the wolf, the rose, and the rose bush, all of which are black. The artwork is simple but made more visually dynamic by the use of varied panel counts and shapes on each page, as well as hatching and shading in the various shades of its Merlot coloring. VERDICT A fast, delightful, and approachable read that brings fantasy to young readers. Recommended.--Alea Perez
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A wordless miniature myth about a girl and a flower-tailed forest-dweller. A dark-haired, pale-skinned young girl wakes up eager to explore; sticking a twig in her hair, she heads out for the woods. While surveying the forest floor, she tumbles down a hillside and arrives at a cave housing a brambly bush. She plucks a rose from the bush and brings it home, where she sets it by her bedside, beneath the full moon's glow. In the morning, she's delighted to meet a black figure at her bedside, an exuberant young wolf with a rose for a tail. The wolf is missing a leg, mirroring her own missing arm, and the pair bond quickly. They play fetch, she feeds it strawberries, and she observes that its petals are beginning to fall. She resolves to return her new friend to the rosebush from whence it came--but not before encountering a dangerous situation in the woods along the way. Warner communicates the loneliness, curiosity, blossoming friendship, and deepening bond between the girl and her lupine companion with wide-eyed surprise and gentle embraces in spare, effective visual language. Warner's illustration style is intently cute without being saccharine, bittersweet without being ponderous. An exploration of love, kindness, and duty communicated eloquently without a word. (preliminary sketches) (Graphic fantasy. 7-10) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
