The Wolf's Boy - Hardcover

Beckhorn, Susan Williams

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1484725530 ISBN 13: 9781484725535

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2016

Synopsis

Handpicked by Amazon kids’ books editor, Seira Wilson, for Prime Book Box – a children’s subscription that inspires a love of reading.

An outcast boy and a young wolf against an Ice Age winter . . .

Kai burns to become a hunter and to earn a rightful place among his people. But that can never be. He was born with a clubfoot. It is forbidden for him to use or even touch a hunter's sacred weapons.

Shunned by the other boys, Kai turns to his true friends, the yellow wolves, for companionship. They have not forgotten the young human they nurtured as an abandoned infant. When Kai discovers a motherless cub in the pack, he risks everything to save her, bringing her back to live with him.

But as winter draws near, Kai's wolf grows ever more threatening in the eyes of the People. When the worst happens, Kai knows that they must leave for good. Together, they embark on a journey into the north-a place of unimaginable danger-that tests the power of friendship and the will to survive.

Award-winning author Susan Williams Beckhorn delivers a powerful tale set in Paleolithic times. Inspired by modern discoveries, Susan's careful research creates a vivid picture of a time when the first wolves came to live with humans and forged a bond that lives on to this day.

About this title

From the Author:

This book is a love letter to every one of the ten dogs that have walked or still do walk by my side, as well as canines everywhere. After writing Wind Rider (first domesticated horse, 6000 years ago in what is now Kazakhstan), I decided to tackle a "first dog" story. Initially, I thought it had been done, but when I looked around, I realized that it really hasn't been done much. Jan Brett has a lovely picture book, and Ruth Craig has one for younger middle readers with a girl protagonist. There is Wolf in the Clan of the Cave Bear series, but he's not a central character, and the books are for adults. For a year, I reread all my favorite dog stories and read books and articles on dog domestication, behavior, wolves, Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal people, the Ice Age, survival, etc. One of my favorite articles (with one of the best titles ever!) was a National Geographic story, From Wolf to Woof. I visited my friend Bob Berg of Thunderbird Atlatls, who is an expert on primitive skills and watched him knap flint and make fire various ways. I visited wolves at the Wolf Conservation Center in New Salem, NY, listened to them sing--and sang back to them. I watched my own two dogs, George and Curry.But where to set my story? Dogs were probably domesticated in more than one place in the world at different times. When I learned from author Mark Derr (How the Dog Became the Dog) about the fossilized footprints of a boy and a canine, apparently walking side by side, in Chauvet Cave in France perhaps 25,000 years ago, chills ran up my spine. I knew then where my story would take place. I traveled to Pont Vallon d'Arc in France, knowing I couldn't go inside Chauvet Cave. Discovered in 1994, it was never opened to the public in order to preserve the stunning 30,000-year-old art, fossilized footprints, and cave bear bones. I absorbed books and documentaries about Chauvet which record the paintings--but I needed to also absorb the landscape of Kai's journey--including the incredible stone arch that spans the Ardeche River gorge. In the Dordogne Valley, I was able to visit the National Museum of Prehistory, go inside some other caves and see actual cave art, visit Lascaux II (the reproduction of Lascaux) and visit Ooonie's roots at the Neanderthal Museum outside of Dusseldorf, Germany. Since my visit, a beautiful reconstruction of Chauvet has been opened, which I hope to visit before long. I love to talk to kids about the writing of this book and show them my Power Point presentation: The Wolf's Boy, a Story 25,000 Years in the Making. And I would love to write more about Kai and Uff, Ooonie, Vida, Xar, and the rest . . .     

From the Inside Flap:

An outcast boy and a young wolf against an Ice Age winter . . .Kai burns to become a hunter and to earn a rightful place among his people. But that can never be. He was born with a clubfoot. It is forbidden for him to use or even touch a hunter's sacred weapons. Shunned by the other boys, Kai turns to his true friends, the yellow wolves, for companionship. They have not forgotten the young human they nurtured as an abandoned infant. When Kai discovers a motherless cub in the pack, he risks everything to save her, bringing her back to live with him. But as winter draws near, Kai's wolf grows ever more threatening in the eyes of the People. When the worst happens, Kai knows that they must leave for good. Together they embark on a journey north--to a place of unimaginable danger--that tests the power of friendship and the will to survive.

About this edition

• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1484725530
• ISBN 13: 9781484725535
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240