Review: Summer of the Wolves by Polly Carlson-Voiles

Summer of the Wolves by Polly Carlson-Voiles.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: May 2012
List Price: $15.99
ISBN-13: 9780547745916

Review: The small, petite earth colored pup wakes up every morning to its helpful mom pup for its first meal of the day. The little pup's future life though will never be the same as it must adapt to peculiar ways of humans when it is taken to the special facility for wolves. Summer of the Wolves by Polly Carson-Voiles is an awe-inspiring book. Summer of the Wolves begins with the back story of Nika and her little brother Randall and their life with their foster mom. The storyline continues to unfold every turn of the page. It is a great wolf book filled with love, sadness and of course "family" that becomes a "real" family.

Nika and Randall have lived their lives with their foster mom Meg until one day she finds out she has something wrong with her body. Nika and Randall must stay with their long lost uncle, Ian, who is a wolf researcher. They all say their goodbyes to Meg and leave to go Minnesota to live with their uncle. After getting settled, Ian takes Randall to a boy's house down to street while Nika stays with Pearl, the town's "grandma." When Nika and Ian go to find a pack of wolves to research, they discover a dead pack with the mother shot and only one pup living. They bring in the pup and help it live. It's only a couple of weeks old. In fact, its eyes and ears haven't opened. They decide to call the pup Khan. Through the weeks of taking care of the pup, its ears open as well as its eyes. Unfortunately for Khan, he can't go back into the wild and is now a captive. While taking care of the pup, Nika becomes attached to it only wanting the pup to be Ian and hers. However, the pup eventually becomes too big for them and is needed to be in a bigger place. The decisions Nike and Ian make result in danger, adventure, and ultimately happiness as they find a way for people to be with the wolves.

Summer of the Wolves is filled with everything a reader would want. It is a great story, with awesome characters and a concept and words that bring the story to life. It is a book that deserves five out of five stars. Summer of the Wolves gives information about wolves, but not enough to bore someone like a non-fiction book might. Carlson-Voiles wrote an interesting book for kids in middle school. It tells a life story of foster kids and the story of a pup and how it lives its life. I don't very often read books, but I'm glad I read this book. It kept me going on my vacation whenever I was bored, and it gave me something to do that was very fun. Summer of the Wolves is one of my favorite books, and I will read it when I have nothing to read. I could never set this book down and would read five chapters at a time. It'll keep you reading and you will never find a boring part in the story.

Review written by Logan (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing a copy of Summer of the Wolves for this review.

Have you read Summer of the Wolves? How would you rate it?