Mr. Wolf’s Class Series by Aron Nels Steinke

Mr. Wolf’s Class series chronicles the events of a class at Hazelwood Elementary. The series begins with Mr. Wolf, who is a new teacher, hopeful and eagerly preparing for his first day of teaching. The students are also preparing for a new school year, looking forward to all it will hold. The day has its hiccups, silly adventures, rats who live in the walls, and a student who goes missing, but all in all, it is a fun day. The subsequent books focus more in-depth on certain students in the class.

Book two focuses on a group of girls from the class who form a club during recess focused on solving mysteries. They write down four questions to solve and through seemingly unrelated events, all of their questions get answered by the end of the book. In book three, Mr. Wolf has the students compose personal narrative stories. Sampson, a student with writer's block, decides to go on an adventure in order to have something interesting to write about. However, he ends up breaking his arm and is out of school for a while. While he is out, two boys must learn conflict resolution during recess four-square showdowns.

Book four highlights the friendship between two students, Randy and Aziza. The girls get into a tiff during a sleepover right before a big field trip. The field trip is an overnight trip to a natural park, so this leaves Aziza trying to make new friends. These new friendships throw off the other student’s friend dynamics. In the last book of the series, the students highlighted are Abdi and Hendry. Abdi’s brother is getting surgery, so Abdi is supposed to go home with Henry. Abdi and Henry accidentally miss the bus, and consequently Abdi, Henry, and Mr. Wolf get stuck at the school overnight due to a blizzard.

Reading Level: 7-10 years old

Mr. Wolf’s Class was fun to read and would make any student feel connected to the fictional teacher and students. The author does a great job weaving storylines, resolving them in unique ways, and making them easy to follow. The text itself is very approachable but also contains intelligent, academic concepts such as omnivores, photosynthesis, geothermal energy, etc. The series is filled with humor in the thought bubbles, the endearing class rats stealing items to give gifts to students who feed them, and the private thoughts of both Mr. Wolf and the students. The illustrations of the graphic novel have enough detail to understand the emotions of each character (all characters are different kinds of animals), but also have a simplicity to them, making them perfect for 2nd to 5th graders. Lastly, as a past public school teacher, I thoroughly enjoyed how realistic the classroom dynamics, language, and banter was, even down to the math manipulatives, how to craft a personal narrative, and teacher sayings such as, “Give me 5,” and, “I’ll wait until it’s quiet.” It made the series relatable, charming, and engaging.

As much as I enjoyed the things mentioned above, I cannot recommend this series for one major reason. This series not only mentions but applauds homosexuality. In book two, the reader finds out Randy has two moms. These moms are mentioned quite a bit, as her birthday party is a major part of the plot. In the next book, Randy is leaving for Hawaii because her moms are “finally getting married!” As a response, Mr. Wolf responds with, “Ah, how sweet!” There are more examples throughout the series mentioned below. With created beings attempting to redefine and cast aside the beautiful institution of marriage that God created and defined, we must be alert to the messaging our kids receive both directly and indirectly. This book is targeting such a young and impressionable age group with a counter-Christian viewpoint that I do not believe this series would be beneficial to the Biblical instruction and discipleship of our children.

Language:
Dang x2, stupid x3 darn x3, pee, poop, chicken butt, fart, shut up
Name Calling: Calls a friend stupid, “Fine, cheater.” “Stupid idiot.”

Questionable Behaviors:
Student exchanges include things like, “you’re not my friend anymore,” “eat flies frog eyes,”
sticking tongue out at each other, arguing over being line leader
Aziza says, “boys are stupid,” to another student. When Mr. Wolf tells her to apologize, her apology is, “sorry you can’t take a joke.”
At times, the students are dishonest. Randy owes the teacher a minute at recess but runs off instead. The students tell Mr. Wolf they will be in the hall discussing a book, but run off. Randy’s “moms” drink wine with their pizza.

Other Things to Note:
● Emphasis on homosexuality
○ See above in Mom Thoughts
○ In book two, Randy mentions her “moms” made her invite everyone to her birthday party.
○ During the party, Randy wants more money and her mom says, “go ask your other mother.” Randy begs her other “mother” who does give her the money.
○ When a friend gives Randy a present early, Randy says that she can’t let her moms see it, because they want all presents opened at the same time.
○ In book four, Aziza and Randy are having a sleepover at Randy’s house, and Randy’s moms are pictured again with the girls eating pizza together.
○ Though potentially innocent, at the field trip the students have to do line dancing. Everyone picks an opposite-gender dancing partner except Aziza. She picks her new, female friend, and Aziza takes on the male dance role jokingly greeting the friend as, “M,lady.”

● Emphasis on superstition throughout the books
○ Bad luck, breaking a mirror, opening an umbrella inside
○ “Thank your lucky stars” you weren’t hurt worse

○ With luck, tree will sprout acorns
● Emphasis on global warming and climate change
○ The students are taught global warming is real, the polar vortex is weakening due to climate change, there is too much carbon dioxide in the air due to burning fossil fuels
○ The students are empowered to fight global warming by planting trees
● Ghost story about a headless miner

Sexual Content:
● Students pictured in underwear
○ Sampson is in his underwear recovering from a broken arm when Margot visits. She notices his underwear in a private thought bubble
○ Margot the bunny is in her underwear trying to put on pants to get ready for school
○ One illustration has a student in underwear using his pants as a slingshot
● Crushes
○ Mystery club investigates if Randy has a crush on Abdi
○ Someomes leaves Abdi a love note
○ Abdi’s nightmare is that he and Randy are about to get married
○ Sampson is asked if he likes Margot
● Randy creates a Venn Diagram polling who takes showers versus who takes baths; she asks Mr. Wolf and the principal as well.

This review was written by Good Book Mom contributor, Emily. To learn more about Emily, click HERE.

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