Skip to main content

The Wolf’s Boy

By

The Wolf’s Boy
By Susan Williams Beckhorn
Disney-Hyperion, 2016. Fiction. 240p.

Set in prehistoric times, this book tells the story of Kai, abandoned to the wolves as a baby because of his club foot, who miraculously survives and is brought back to the human village. Forbidden to hunt or even touch a weapon because of the bad luck his people believe follow him, he shocks the village even more when he adopts a motherless wolf cub.

This middle-grade book made it onto the list of Provo City Library’s “Best Children’s Books of 2016.” It’s a story about many things, including growing up, disabilities and bullying, how wolves transformed into dogs, surviving the harshness of nature, the ties of family, and the power of determination. It’s a great survival adventure with vivid descriptions of hunting, spear making, wolf packs, encounters with Neanderthals, vicious mountain cats, shamans, and a landscape of ice and snow.

The characters are memorable, with real emotions and complicated motives. For me, this story never took a misstep, and I wanted more of Kai’s journey. Here’s hoping that the slight possibility the author leaves for a sequel turns into something!
Labels:

Comments

Ms. Yingling said…
Frydenborg's A Dog in the Cave is a good nonfiction accompaniment to this. A bit long, but if you have readers who really like this one, it's worth looking into. My own personal wolf thought both books were great, since she got to snuggle in my armpit while I read them both!
April 12, 2017 at 3:40 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Factory

By
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Fowl Play

By
  Fowl Play By Kristin O'Donnell Tubb New York: Katherine Tegen Books, 2024. Fiction 277 pages. Still reeling from her beloved uncle's death, Chloe Alvarez is comforted and confused when at his last will and testament reading, Uncle Will gifts her his African Grey parrot, Charlie. Charlie has a robust vocabulary and loves to make Alexa requests for her favorite songs, but when she starts saying things like, "homicide," and "cyanide," Chloe becomes convinced that Uncle Will may have met his demise by murder instead of a genetic disease, as was previously thought. Ultimately, bringing in her brother, Grammy, and Uncle Frank (and of course Charlie,) Chloe's ragtag and adoring family support her search for answers ---going on stakeouts, engaging in fast pursuits, and searching for clues. But as the suspects stack up and the mystery grows, Chole will learn that the process of death and grieving is complicated, and in the end her Uncle Will's words that, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry

By DeeDee
National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry Edited by J. Patrick Lewis National Geographic, 2012, 183 p. Poetry In this beautiful poetry collection, the National Children's Poet Laureate, J. Patrick Lewis, has teamed up with the amazing photographers at National Geographic. The result is 200 poems about animals, all illustrated with stunning nature photography.  The poems are well chosen and include rhyming, free verse, and shape poetry. Some of the poems are funny, many are contemplative and all are nicely typeset on top of the full color photographs. One of my favorites is a shape poem about flamingos, with a photograph of a flock of flamingos which seem to be standing the the shape of a flamingo (how did they do that?).  Lewis ends the collection with a brief but interesting section about writing animal poetry.  This selection is sure to turn any animal lover into a poetry lover.
Post a Comment
Read more