READING LEVEL 4.4 AR POINTS: 3.0

Originally published in 2015. Written for 8-12 year olds, this story was just okay. It didn’t feel deep or meaningful at all. It started out okay, developing a little relationship between the old wolf and the old raven. It's true in real life they depend on each other. The wolf's kill is the ravens feast. So the raven leads the wolves to food sources by flying high above near the source and "cawing".

The story bounces back and forth between an old wolf, Nashoba, who has to prove his worth to a pack of eight wolves by finding a food source for the starving pack who hasn't eaten for over two weeks, and a 13 year old boy, Casey Seton, addicted to the video game "Bowhunter", killing a variety of animals on screen. But, his greatest dream is to be a real hunter. It is his birthday and he receives a real bow and arrow as a gift from his parents.

I realize that in the wild only the strongest survive. But, there could have been lessons learned in this story when one of the younger arrogant male wolves in the pack messed up a good hunt when he didn’t listen to the old wolf’s instructions and botched a kill for young elk. But nope, the old wolf ends up hurt and can’t retreat with the others. He is disgraced by the younger wolf and lies on the ground severely hurt until Merla, the old raven who lead them to this food source, tries to save him. But, because Casey can’t separate reality from his make believe video games, he kills the raven with his bow and arrow. Sure, he feels bad afterwards. But now, the wolf pack is gone and Merla is gone. The old wolf is left alone to heal and find his own way alone. ( )

I thought this was a fine book. I say this because it is age appropriate without much violence. Yet I didn't really get the whole connect between Casey playing video games of hunting and real life with him encountering Nashoba. Why I say this is because it did not really seem like Casey learned any lessons from his meeting with Nashoba. Although I did like Nashoba. I felt sorry for him yet I had an instant connection with him. You won't learn much from this book and there is nothing grand about the story but it is a quick, nice read. ( )

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