Wolf Boy
Evan Kuhlman, , illus. by Brendon and Brian Fraim. . Crown/Shaye Areheart, $23 (314pp) ISBN 978-0-307-33696-5
Gene and Helen Harrelson sleep in separate bedrooms after a car accident in an ice storm kills their oldest child, Francis, a sophomore at the local University of Illinois, Carbondale, while younger siblings Stephen and Crispy struggle to cope with the loss of their mentor. In this dysfunctional family tale, happiness escapes the characters in a "slow, persistent leak" as Kuhlman wryly dissects seemingly innocent moments, like Stephen's assumption that the stranger on the phone is a telemarketer and not the messenger of his older brother's death. Stephen, more or less at the center of the book, channels his grief into stories for a comic called
Reviewed on: 01/16/2006
Genre: Fiction
Paperback - 308 pages - 978-1-9790-5379-2
Paperback - 326 pages - 978-0-307-33798-6