Victoria Scott’s new middle grade book, Hear the Wolves, is the perfect thriller to curl up with on a cold night. Not just for kids, this book had me up until the late hours, breathing hard, scared, and rooting for Sloan, a girl left alone in a blizzard in a small town in Alaska. Armed with two guns, only one with bullets that will protect her from wolves and bears, and a few townspeople who stayed behind when the rest of the town went to a nearby city to vote, they will have to find their way to the river. The river is the only way out to the city, and one of them is terribly injured. Blizzard conditions would be enough to make this arduous, days-long journey hard, but there is something else to contend with, wolves. Due to choice of the townspeople themselves, there were too many rabbits last season, and now there are too many wolves, and the rabbits are gone. The wolves are hungry. The humans are now the hunted.
A terrifically terrifying read that will make you think about fear, independence, the environment, and where we all fit into this world. The author’s note at the end is a piercing look into wolves and the stereotypes that surround them and will urge readers young and old to learn more about these majestic animals and think hard about how we often believe we have conquered the wilderness.
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Fiction for kids and adults
Nonfiction: Wolf Conservation and Sanctuaries
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