Book List Review
Summer of the Wolvenics. (typo to be corrected – “wolvenics?”)
Carlson-Voiles, Polly (Author)
May 2012. 352 p. Houghton, hardcover
“Helping to raise a rescued wolf cub changes a preteen orphan’s life in this emotion-driven first novel. Nika expects that she and her little brother, Randall, will only be staying for a little while with their estranged Uncle Ian, a wolf researcher based in a remote Minnesota town—but hardly has she arrived than she and Ian find a newborn cub left behind by hunters who killed the mother wolf and took the rest of the litter away to, probably, sell. Nika’s utter devotion to the cub’s high-maintenance care (described in detail) becomes a tie binding her to her new situation, but others develop too as she slowly becomes more attached both to her wild surroundings and to her uncommunicative but caring uncle. Carlson-Voiles skillfully folds in generous quantities of information about wolf behavior and issues between wolves and humans (including what wolf scientists think of Jean Craighead George’s Julie of the Wolves, 1972) as she brings Nika and the animals she loves through several crises to a clear, comforting resolution. A tale with plenty of appeal for animal-rescue fans.”
~ John Peters for Book List
