Lone Wolf

Kathryn Lasky's WOLVES OF THE BEYOND: LONE WOLF tells of a wolf mother who hides when her pup is born disfigured. Her pup must be abandoned - but instead Faolan survives and grows to become a creature that will change his world.

Having been a featured book at the Scholastic Book fair, I was intrigued by a story featuring a malformed wolf pup being abandoned by a its' purity driven pack. I have not read anything by Lasky before, but did enjoy the tale of a wolf being rescued by a grief-stricken bear and imbued with traits of both species. The plot is engaging and I cared about Faolan and what is to become of him; I was saddened about the loss of Thunderheart. Beautifully written fiction is meaningless if the reader does not care about the fate of the characters. I care and look forward to the next book in the series. I give this book four stars for one reason: Being a school librarian, I always attempt to read books through the eyes of my students. Many of the "wolf terms" are foreign and oddly spelled. I can see a student having a hard time decoding the words. It would have been helpful to have an index in the back of the book with term definition and pronunciation to allow kids to feel confident in how to read the words and sound them in their minds without interfering with the plot.

Away from her pack, her mate and the MacDuncan wolf clan, she-wolf Morag gives birth to three wolf pups. Two of them are tawny and perfect --- like their father. The third is silver gray and has a light splay on one of its front paws. Morag thinks her silver pup is perfect, too, but she knows his defective paw will brand him as malcadh, the ancient wolf word for "cursed." As a malcadh, the silver pup must be taken away from his mother and Morag and her mate banished to protect the pack's bloodlines. Morag nurses her pups in the quiet darkness of a routed fox's den to keep them concealed until the silver pup can grow strong --- and away from Shibaan, the Obea of the MacDuncan clan. As the Obea, the barren she-wolf Shibaan is responsible for carrying deformed wolf pups to a remote location where she abandons them to the elements and fate. Not long after Morag gives birth, Shibaan hunts down the mother and her pups, and then takes away the deformed silver pup. The Obea carries the pup to an isolated location and abandons him on an ice ledge --- a place where surely the malcadh will perish. Near the ice ledge, as the river threatens to flood, a grief-stricken mother grizzly bear welcomes death as a release from her overwhelming sorrow. Her lone cub has been killed by cougars, and she has lost her will to survive. Yet death does not take her. In the storm's wake, beneath the water, a dark clot has attached itself to the bear's hind leg. She picks up the clot and realizes it is a wolf pup that has clung to her during the flood. After seeing a spark of life in the eyes of the near-death pup, she gathers him to her chest and gives him nourishment. Believing the wolf pup is a "gift from the river" to replace her cub, she names the pup Faolan. As the grizzly nurses Faolan back to life, she once again is filled with motherly love and pride. Months pass, and Faolan grows stronger as his new mother provides him food, love and warmth while teaching him how to survive in the wilderness. To Faolan, his new mother, the Milk Giver with the huge and thumping heart, becomes known as Thunderheart. As days grow shorter and winter approaches, Thunderheart begins her deep sleep in her winter den and Faolan must embark on a courageous journey across the great Beyond. LONE WOLF is the first book in award-winning author Kathryn Lasky's new series, Wolves of the Beyond. It is an absorbing tale of courage and compassion in an animal world where the need for love, survival and belonging is strong. Lasky's careful research and elegant writing enhance the story's message that life is a gift and being different isn't necessarily a sign of weakness; it can be a source of strength. --- Reviewed by Donna Volkenannt ([email protected])

What a gorgeous book! This is the same author of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole books, which I loved, and she goes back to that world to explore the world of the wolves. The book starts when a wolf pup is born with a splayed paw, and because the wolf pack can't have weakness, the little pup is cast out. Everyone thinks he's going to die, but he's adopted by a grizzly bear, Thunderheart, who raises him. The chapters between the two of them are just beautiful, and so cool. It's a BEAR raising a WOLF - for people who love books about animals, it doesn't get much better than that! I loved this book. Faolan is the best wolf to lope across the page since White Fang.