Wolves in Sheep's Clothing: Bad Boys by Margie Palatini

If you thought you'd heard it all about the big, b-a-a-d wolf, it's time you met Willie and Wally, those two really b-a-a-d con artists of the forests created by Margie Palatini and Henry Cole.

In their first book, Bad Boys, big bad wolves Wally and Willy begin the story escaping just ahead of a lynch mob composed of Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs. When the two bad wolves spot a herd of sheep, they come up with their own witness protection program, disguising themselves in matronly dresses and woolly locks to blend in with the ewe-biquitous female flock.

"We'll go on the lam," chuckled Willy.

"Pull the wool over their eyes," chortled Wally.

"Fleece the flock," they both snickered. "Oh, yeah, we're bad, we're bad, we're really, really bad."

Although the disguises dupe the ordinary flocksters, tough ewes Betty Mutton and Meryl Sheep (former stars of stage and screen) and Trudie Ewe (True-to-You, get it?) quiz the two faux ewes closely. When Betty Mutton refuses to believe their story that the two are Peep Sheep ("Just a minute. I knew the Peep Sheep. I grazed with the Peep Sheep. I counted with the Peep Sheep. And you two don't leap like Peep Sheep."), she arranges a ewe-nique experience as she fast talks the wolves into lining up with the ewes waiting to be shorn .

Buzz-cut, the bad boys take it on the lam again until they can safely lay low, knit themselves some clothes to cover their skivvies, and wait for those bad, bad, really, really bad haircuts to grow out.

Palatini is at her pun-niest with the text of this very funny book, and Henry Cole's illustrations of the two con artists trying to fleece the flock are choice. Kids will love to chime in on the refrain "We're bad, bad, really, really bad!"

In their 2006 sequel, Bad Boys Get Cookie!, Palatini and Cole give the two wolves new disguises. When the gingerbread boy escapes from the old baker, the ever-hungry two dress as private investigators Wallace and Willis, with no luck in, er, interrogating the runaway cookie. Ditto for their Hansel and Gretel disguises, which wouldn't fool a near-sighted witch. When their really bad get ups fail to trick the treat, Cookie Man taunts the toothy two with a refrain kids will soon pick up:

"Na Na Ni Na Na!
Lookee! Lookee!
You can't get me.
I'm one smart cookie!"