Author Tracks Down The Wolfsnail

Author Sarah Campbell reads "Wolfsnail"

We’ve all heard that good things come to those who wait. That’s especially true for an award winning Mississippi author. MPB’s Ron Brown tells us how Sarah Campbell amazes kids with the true story of the Wolfsnail.

Mrs. Setzer’s kindergarten class at Davis Magnet Elementary school in Jackson is poised for their lesson. They sit with their legs crossed on the floor, their hands folded in their laps. Each student wears a piece of red and white colored paper on their head, made special to resemble the famous headgear worn by Dr. Seuss’s “The Cat in the Hat.” Then their guest arrives.

“Good Morning boys and girls. My name is Sarah Campbell, and I’m here this morning with a special assignment.”

Sarah Campbell’s special assignment is to read a story. It’s not Green Eggs and Ham. It’s not Hop on Pop. It is a tale about a slimy legless creature. It has wide set eyes and slithers around feeding it’s hunger by silently tracking, then devouring, the small and the unsuspecting. Believe it or not, this children’s story is about a cannibal. And every word is true. And there’s a Dr. Seuss connection. But if you’re not instantly familiar with it, then you don’t know about the Wolfsnail.

Campbell reading: “Water from a spring rain runs along the edge of a porch. It falls onto the shell of a wolfsnail. The snail is tucked inside the shell.”

From the very beginning, Campbell and the wolfsnail have the wide-eyed attention of every child in the room.

“What I love to listen for is the quiet, because they stop squirming and they do have big eyes and you can tell they’re just soaking up this interesting story they hadn’t heard before. It’s a moment of fascination.”

The attraction for Campbell began when she and her three-year-old son discovered a real live wolfsnail in their back yard.
They didn’t know much about snails, so they went to the library for research books.

“We didn’t find any with pictures that looked exactly like these snails they have the cone shape rather than the roundish shape and we also didn’t find any reference to anything that snails eat, other than leaves. So I just didn’t feel comfortable that we’d found what it was that we had.”

They had a common snail, but because little was written about it, an uncommon story. So Campbell, a trained journalist, set about to change all that. She decided that since her son was fascinated by the meat eating snail, other kids would be as well. She took lots of up close macro photography images of wolfsnails, and wrote a book, a children’s book.

“I knew that this was a great story, because I was telling everyone around town, oh, we found these snails and they’re marvelous and as you can see in the classroom, kids really do like the slime and the ooze and so a snail is kind of an animal that they can interact with.”

Kids like seven-year-old Landon P. and Imani S.

Imani S. “I know that the wolf snail eats slugs and snails but not wild things. I like all kinds of animals. They have mucus and the mucus come out of their body and make a slimy trail.”

Landon P. “This morning I saw a little snail on my porch, then I saw the wolfsnail right beside it, and when I blinked my eyes, bam! The shell was empty. Uh huh. I saw it gobble him up. I saw the whole thing.”

Mrs. Setzer’s kindergarten class at Davis Magnet Elementary school aren’t the only fans of the “Wolfsnail” book.
The American Library Association named “Wolfsnail” one of four Theodor Seuss Geisel honor books for 2009, and that’s the Dr. Suess connection. Quite an achievement for Sarah Campbell’s first, and so far only, published book.

Sarah Campbell reading: “The wolfsnail settles into a cool spot, under the porch ledge, pulls it’s flesh into it’s shell, and falls asleep. And that’s the end of the wolfsnail story.”

It’s a story that began in her own backyard, and grew, at a snail’s pace.

“It took seven years to publication… yeah I know, it’s a snail story.. yes.”

For MPB News, I’m Ron Brown.