Alfie the Werewolf

Cover of the first book

Alfie the Werewolf is a Dutch children’s book series, written by Paul van Loon. The original Dutch title of the series is Dolfje Weerwolfje.

The series follows the adventures of a boy named Alfie (Dolfje in the original), who in the night of his seventh birthday discovers he is a werewolf. Fortunately for him, his foster family is very open minded about this and supports him in every way possible. He soon discovers being a werewolf runs in his family since his grandfather and cousin Leo are also werewolves. Later in the series, his girlfriend Noura also becomes a werewolf when Alfie accidently bites her. However, not everyone is equally happy about a werewolf living in their town, like Alfie’s neighbor Mrs Chalker.

The series currently consists of 9 regular books, 6 of which have been translated into English, and 5 special books. In the Netherlands they are very popular among young readers, having won several prizes. Two musicals based on the books have been made and the character has his own magazine. A movie adaption was released in November 2011. The books are also translated in many other languages, including German, Korean, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Chinese.

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Tropes used in Alfie the Werewolf include:

• Big Eater: the 3rd book introduces a creature called a scoffle, which is small as a cat but can eat a full grown man in one bite.
• Complete Monster: Mrs Chalker. In the first book she appears to be just a grumpy old lady who accidentally discovers Aflie's secret and tries to turn him in to the authorities, but in the fifth book it becomes clear she has a long history of hunting werewolves, frequently abused her two sisters (one is missing an eye and the other an ear), and trained her younger brother into locating werewolves by treating him like a dog. Also, in the fifth book, she tries to kill Alfie by feeding him to piranhas.
  • It gets even worse when she herself is turned into a werewolf, because in the eighth book she tries to drain Alfie of all his fear sweat to make belts with which she can turn other people into werewolves, as part of a plan to take over the world.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Alfie's adoptive father to some extent. He just loves everything that's "different", and expresses this by often dressing up in weird clothes (like his wife's dress).
• Cool Old Guy: Alfie's grandfather
• Crossover: the seventh book is a crossover with De Leeuwenkuil ("The lion pit"), another book series by Paul van Loon.
• Dressing as the Enemy: in the 3rd book, when Alfie is kidnapped by a hunter who wants to sell him to a scientist and a collector, Alfie's mom and grandfather intercept the two and steal their clothes to make the hunter believe they are his customers.
• Happily Adopted: at the end of the 3rd book, Alfie's foster family officially adopts him.
• Humanoid Abomination: Mrs Chalker when she is bitten by a vampire at the end of the eighth book, thus becoming a werewolf/vampire hybrid.
• I Am a Monster: Alfie's first reaction to himself becoming a werewolf. He retains this attitude during most of the first book, but comes to accept his fate when he finds out his foster family doesn't care he is a werewolf.
• Foster Kid: Alfie is one in the first two books.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: on several points:
  • Becoming a werewolf: This runs in Alfie's family. His grandfather is a werewolf, and so is his cousin. But since it skips a generation, his biological parents are not. Werewolves can however also turn other people into werewolves by biting them, and the 8th book introduces special belts which can temporarily turn people into werewolves.
  • Behavior: In werewolf form Alfie maintains his human personality and ability of speech most of the time, except when he gets really angry or when he develops a case of werewolf hunger, which can only be solved by eating some sort of meat.
  • Appearance: sometimes Alfie keeps his clothes on and walks on just two legs like an anthropomorphic wolf, while other times he sheds his clothes and walks on four legs like a real wolf.
  • Transformation: Alfie and most other werewolves only transforms during the full moon and the nights before and after a full moon, but old werewolves like his grandfather can stay in wolf form all the time if they want. The only exception to this is in the 3rd book, when Alfie transforms even without a full moon because he is so happy about the fact that his foster family officially adopted him.
• Mad Scientist: Appears as a secondary villain in the 3rd book and a main villain in the eight book.
• Martial Arts and Crafts: Alfie's mother specializes in broom fighting.
• Mother Bear: Alfie's adoptive mother, definitely. Try to mess with her or her (adopted) children, and she beats the crap out of you with her broom or some other object.
• Naked People Trapped Outside: In the beginning of the fourth book, Alfie doesn't make it home before sunrise and turns back into his human form while still outside in the woods. And unfortunately for him, this was one of those times he choose not to wear his clothes in werewolf form.
• Comic Book Time: in the most recent book, Alfie is still 7 years old despite the fact that, judging by the amount of full moons that have come and gone by this time, at least a year must have passed since the events from the first book.
• Parental Abandonment: Alfie's real parents abandoned him when he was 3 years old because they found out he would become a werewolf later in life. That's why he lives with a foster family that later officially adopts him.
• Papa Wolf: Alfie's adoptive father, although in a less extreme way than his wife.
• Saving the Forest: the main plot of the fourth book.
• The Collector: Alfie is abducted by one in the 3rd book.
• The Worf Effect: Leo is one of the biggest and strongest werewolves in the series, yet he frequently is the first one to fall victim to a new enemy. In the fifth book he is the first one to be captured by Mrs Chalker and her sisters, and in the eighth book he is the first one to be knocked out by a mad scientist who turned himself into a giant werewolf.
• The Film of the Book: a movie adaption was released on November 30 2011.