NEVER CRY WOOF!

Using the same sort of wild collage and typography that revved up her Henny-Penny (2000), Wattenberg recasts The Boy Who Cried Wolf as a “Dog-U-Drama,” featuring an all-canine cast (except for the sheep) photographed in a variety of human headgear and strewn across decidedly unnatural-looking greensward. Responding to a newspaper ad (“Can’t Sleep? Count Sheep!”), Bix soon finds respite from the boredom: “Watching fluffballs 24–7 is not the cat’s pajamas. It’s PARTY time. Catch this: WOOOOOOF!’” Led by Hunky-Dory, the other sheepdogs quickly tire of the sport, leaving Bix on his own when a wolf really does show up. So what does Bix do? “FLEAS LOUISE! What’s a lone dog to do when he has a hunch he’s lunch? Get UP and R U N !” “What would YOU do?” the author queries readers, after furnishing a last view of the wolf popping whole sheep like popcorn. No explicit moral, but there’s a lesson here somewhere. (Fable. 6-8)