Andy Harkness: Hello, my name is Andy Harkness and I am the author-illustrator of Wolfboy.

We spent a lot of time in libraries growing up. Our local library, on Sunday evenings, they had movie night and they were always old movies. And one night they played the Wolf Man and I fell in love with it. I've been a werewolf fan pretty much all my life. About the same time, around second grade, in our school library, there was a book, and many people are familiar with it, not everybody, called Where The Wild Things Are. And I fell in love with that book and how it transitions from his bedroom to the forest. And it just, it took me to a different place when I read the story.

At that age I knew I wanted to be a children's book illustrator, and that was my dream. That's been my dream since I was seven years old. So those two little things kind of combined and began to formulate things in my head, even that young. After college, I got a job at Disney Animation and I've had a wonderful career there, almost 28 years, but the whole time I've been working in animation, I've never lost touch with the dream of doing a children's book.

So, I have two boys and my wife and I noticed this really interesting phenomenon when they were hungry, they would turn from our little angels into little monsters. They would transform before our eyes. And of course that caught my attention; that was very interesting. I thought about how can I write that into a story with humor, obviously. So that was the beginnings of the story.

I think we've all felt this way, different times in our lives. We just don't feel like ourselves. Something's going on in our life, could be as simple as we're hungry. Whatever it is, it's making us feel a little bit not like ourselves and maybe that's projected out toward others, or we're just grumpy that day. We're having a rough day.

How wonderful is it? What a gift it is to have someone in our lives, whether it's a parent or teacher, friend or anybody, who sees through that and knows who we are. They can laugh it off and not take it personal and just give us a big hug and say, "I love you." And there's a lot of power in that. And that's basically what the rabbits are for Wolfboy. They do not take the emotional roller coaster that he does through the book. They know him; they know exactly what he's about and they love him anyway. So that's the big theme through it. And then being able to say, in his own way, "I'm sorry." At the end, "I have regret for, remorse for what I said."

So now I'm going to read a few pages of Wolfboy.

Wolfboy leaped across the steep ravine and marched into Moonberry Meadow. He was HUNGRY and HUFFY and DROOLY and GROWLY and FUSSY. "Rabbits, rabbits! Where are you?" he howled. But the rabbits were nowhere to be found.

Wolfboy YOWLED and GROWLED. He CLOMPED and TROMPED. "I need food," he roared. Suddenly, there was a rustle of grass. Wolfboy froze. A twig snapped. Wolfboy's eyes sharpened. Then he saw two long ears ... A furry foot. And a cottony tail. His tummy rumbled loudly. Wolfboy crouched low.