The Big Bad Wolf
with a Toothache

A picturebook where reading becomes a physical act, and humor turns a feared character into a shared experience of vulnerability, empathy, and care.

Reading as action

In The Big Bad Wolf with a Toothache, the book is not a neutral support for the story. It actively performs it. Page turns, scale, and physical gestures operate as narrative forces, shaping how the reader enters and advances through the wolf’s experience.

The story unfolds through the progressive opening of the wolf’s mouth. Die-cuts and page structure are integral to the narrative, requiring the reader to engage physically with the book. Each gesture of reading activates the plot, turning the handling of the object into a sequence of dramatic actions.

Rather than illustrating a pre-existing text, the book constructs meaning through rhythm, sequence, and bodily involvement. Reading is not external to the story, but part of its narrative mechanism.

About the book

This picturebook revisits a classic character by shifting his role from threat to vulnerability. The Big Bad Wolf appears not as a figure of power, but as a character in pain, inviting readers to reconsider fear through humor and empathy.

Designed for shared reading, the book encourages interaction between adult and child. Its visual structure fosters collaboration, attention, and emotional mediation, using humor as an entry point to approach discomfort without trivializing it.

Materiality plays a central role in the narrative. Format, pacing, and the physical experience of handling the book are inseparable from the story being told, reinforcing the book as an active narrative device rather than a container for content.

Why it matters

• Reframes a classic figure of fear through humor, vulnerability, and care

• Turns shared reading into an embodied, participatory experience

• Treats the book as an active narrative device, where form and gesture produce meaning

Circulation and recognition

Selected and recognized in major international contexts for illustration and editorial design, including:

International

• World Illustration Awards (AOI) — 2025 Longlist (Children’s Publishing)
• Communication Arts Design Annual — 2025 Shortlist (Books)
• American Illustration (AI-AP) — American Illustration 44 (Selected)

Brazil / institutional recognition

• UNESCO Chair on Reading (PUC-Rio) — 2025 Hors Concours

Die-cut children’s picturebook with a stylized wolf face and vertical format

Fully opened picturebook showing repeating red and white die-cut pattern across spreads

Picturebook spread where the wolf’s mouth opens progressively through die-cuts

Narrative picturebook spread using scale contrast inside the wolf’s open eye

Reader’s hand interacting with a die-cut picturebook, activating the narrative through page turning

Stylized wolf face in a die-cut picturebook emphasizing vertical reading gesture

Picturebook spread using vertical layout and graphic elements to guide the reading path

Back cover of a children’s picturebook with vertical format and graphic narrative design

International rights

Rights available for international editions and exhibitions.
→ Contact for rights inquiries