The Last of the Breed

From the book jacket, "Inspired by _The Last of the Mohicans_ by James Fenimore Cooper," _Last of the Breed_ is part of the "Adventures of Wishbone" series. Wishbone, a perky Jack Russell Terrier, connects modern-day events with books he remembers "reading." In this particular adventure Mr. Leon King, a local real estate developer in Wishbone's home town of Oakdale, wants to build a Tastee Oasis fast-food outlet on the edge of the town park. He gets permission to do so, by nefarious means, from the Oakdale Town Council. The moral of the book, from which Wishbone draws parallels to Cooper's novel, is that the land is important and progress (in the form of fast food outlets) isn't measured by paving over every available inch of landscape. What is especially impressive about Steele's treatment of _Mohicans_ is that he is truthful to the original. He does not gloss over the violence (he includes a throat-slashing and the Massacre at Fort William Henry), nor does he try to change the ending of Cooper's novel. Wishbone even says, "I had forgotten how sad the ending of this story is. Let me just take a moment..." before moving back to the "triumph" over Mr. Leon King. _Last of the Breed_, while certainly not a substitute for Cooper's _Last of the Mohicans_, is certainly a good primer for reading Cooper's novel. Moreover, it treats readers, both children and adults, to a throughly enjoyable ecofriendly story. Well done, Wishbone!