Urgency Emergency! Big Bad Wolf

Classic fairy tale characters get much needed medical help in this humorous first book in an early reader series, originally published in the U.K. In the opening scene, Nurse Percy, a rooster, comforts a sheep in a red cloak “who was crying because she couldn’t find her grandma.” Just then, two penguin paramedics rush in with a wolf in polka-dot pants on their gurney. “Urgency emergency!” they shout. “We have a wolf here who is choking.” A canine medic, Doctor Glenda, investigates, and she soon realizes (as many readers will have guessed), “It may not be something stuck in his throat—it may be someone.” Doctor Glenda and Nurse Percy give the wolf the evil eye as she delivers her medical assessment, while the wolf (still choking) stares back guiltily, his pink tongue lolling from his mouth. Archer’s thickly painted illustrations exude personality and humor, and emerging readers will get a kick out of seeing the repercussions of a familiar story play out in an emergency room setting. Doctor Glenda attends to a spider with a waterspout-related injury in Itsy Bitsy Spider, available simultaneously. Ages 5–8. (Sept.)