The Wolves

Recounts how a wolf pack struggles to survive in the frozen North and includes an author's note describing the dwindling wolf population in America and the threat of extinction

Grade 1-4?Powerful, impressionistic oil paintings frame a spare text recording a winter hunt by a wolf pack as its alpha pair direct it in separating an ailing elk from her herd. The ecological messages?that wolves hunt to eat, and culling benefits most herds?are strong. Wolf behaviors are presented accurately in both the text and in the dramatic illustrations. Heinz avoids anthropomorphism (though he names the alpha pair and indicates some thought processes), and he includes a historical note on the decimation of the wolf in the lower 48 states. Fuchs's paintings, while not photographic in detail, are realistic. The Wolves is a fine example of a genre of simply written, heavily illustrated, ecology-based books. Coupled with Celia Godkin's Wolf Island (W. H. Freeman, 1995), it makes an excellent introduction to the wolf and its place in the natural world.?Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Paying tribute to nature in all its beauty and brutality, Heinz (Arctic Fox) delivers a spellbinding account of a starving wolf pack's hunt for food. Pahtoo and his pack have been suffering through a harsh winter with little to eat and have finally closed in on a herd of elk. The wolves must now use their cunning, skill and experience to kill their prey. The author's action-filled, present-tense account and expressive language quicken the pulse. Fuchs's (Ragtime Tumpie) wintry oils, awash in pale, creamy pink and purple light, feature hauntingly intense wolves and terrified, desperate elk. The lines of his compositions are softened, drafting readers' imaginations in place of explicit detail. The combination of text and art is formidable competition for any television documentary. Younger children may be upset by the violence of this food chain; older readers and naturalists will appreciate the wild elegance and efficiency captured here. Ages 5-9.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In a preface to this powerful story, Heinz (The Alley Cat, 1993, etc.) provides historical information on wolves in North America as well as their present situation. The mountains are characterized in language that is poetic without being heavy-handed, when out of the fog comes a pack of wolves. A dozen animals are described: their place in the pack, their approximate ages. Driving them and driving the story is their hunger, their crucial need to find food. They close in on a sick and aging elk after testing the strength of the others in the herd. The wolves ``become strange allies to the remaining elk,'' because the sick elk has slowed down the herd and eaten food that could have nourished healthy animals. After the kill, the wolves are shown playing, sleeping, and finally howling at the moon in an ``eerie symphony from the mountains to the heavens.'' In fervent harmony with the text, and in tones of lavender and taupe, Fuchs's oil paintings are authoritative and exciting. The compositions and perspectives portray danger, fear, and violence without showing the kill; in his artistry, Fuchs convinces onlookers of the impact of the event without subjecting them to the gore. An exquisite story of the wild. (Picture book/nonfiction. 5-9) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Ages 5^-8. A creature much maligned in fiction and folklore is powerfully and realistically presented in a picture book that rings with deep understanding and reverence for the natural world. Part natural history, part story, Heinz's compelling yet quiet narrative, a dramatic, authentic record of wolf-pack behavior, follows a pack led by the wolf Pahtoo as it tracks and kills an elk, then rests from its labors. By naming the leader, Heinz allows for a smoother telling and brings the experience close: the hunt and the kill are tense, vivid, and immediate. There's no soft-pedaling, but neither is there superfluous violence. The theme is survival, and the wolves triumph; yet some elk fight back, with the sickly, old one that ultimately dies "chosen not by the wolves, but by the brutal winter and this harsh land." Fuchs' artwork is as stirring and powerful as the text. In shades of blues and grays, purples and golds, the magnificent, hazy double-page spreads evoke with equal majesty the chilling quiet of the brutal landscape and the energy and frenzy of the wolves. Heinz, who is an elementary school science teacher, sets the stage for the dramatic story with a fact-filled foreword. Stephanie Zvirin