The One and Only Wolfgang: From Pet Rescue to One Big Happy Family

Steve Greig is an accountant whose passion for animals has led to him becoming a sought-after advocate for pet adoption. He has appeared on television and been covered by many publications, including NBC Nightly News, ABC News, Fox 5, Animal Planet, Bravo, Rachel Ray, Today.com, Huffington Post, Country Living, PetInsider, Susie’s Senior Dogs, The Dodo, and more).

Mary Rand Hess is a poet, mixed-media artist, screenwriter, and New York Times bestselling author of Solo and Animal Ark: Celebrating Our Wild World in Poetry and Pictures, both coauthored with Kwame Alexander.

 

 

 

Nadja Sarell is an illustrator living in Helsinki, Finland. She has an MA in Dance from Theatre Academy Helsinki and went on to receive a degree in Children’s Illustration from North Wales School of Art and Design. Nadja loves to teach art, illustration, and dance for both children and adults. If Nadja was an animal, she would be a cat living in an old mansion with a large fireplace and a comfy sofa. Her favorite things are her family, music, dancing, black coffee and chocolate.

Wolfgang is an all-animal family first popularized on Greig's Instagram. The meaning of family is important to 12 animals who became one family through adoption. In order to fully acquaint readers with the members of this family, individual portraits of each animal and an amusing fact are presented in a double-page gallery at the beginning of the book. Family members include nine dogs, one rabbit, one pig, and one chicken Each animal has a quirky side that is visible through the illustrations, which digitally collage photographs of the animals onto cartoon backgrounds. It is obvious to readers that there is much love and acceptance in this book despite all of their differences. Readers see them milling around the kitchen together, making a bubbly mess while bathing, and engaging in movie night. Throughout the book, various ages, sizes, and abilities are depicted to represent a diverse family; graying muzzles indicate that several are of advanced years. All of the members of this family are loved, whether it is the old cocker that trips all of the other dogs, the big pig who eats all of the food, the deaf dog, or the blind dog. More a description of their imagined living circumstances than a story, the busy, amusing scenarios will endear these characters to readers. Jodi Picoult provides an afterword. A memorable and entertaining celebration of adoption. (Picture book. 5-7)