A Wolf Called Wonder - 6th article in a series of 9

 ***Skip the intro if you have already read any of the blogs in this series of 9.  Go straight to the Title and Author information.

***This blog entry is for teachers’ (and parents’) eyes only! It is intended to help teachers learn about the books on the William Allen White nominee list for this year, and then make decisions about how they might want to use some of these books during the upcoming school year.  There are 9 books on the list. This is the 6th blog in a series of 9.

The William Allen White Book Award is for kids in the state of Kansas to vote each year for their favorite from a list of nominated books. If you are a 3rd - 5th grade teacher in Kansas, this blog will hopefully be very useful. But even if you teach a grade level adjacent to these grades or teach somewhere other than Kansas, I think you will find some useful information regarding some books that have made it to the 2021-22 WAW nominated list.  

Title:  A Wolf Called Wander

Author:  Rosanne Parry

Format:  Chapter Book, 256 pages (available in paperback)

This story is told from a wild wolf’s point of view.  It is an action-packed survival story from leaving his pack family after being attacked by a rival wolf pack to wandering through different lands and environments to finally finding a new home territory.  The book is based on an actual Oregon wolf who had a tracking collar installed when he was a pup.

This book could make a good classroom read-aloud, especially if the class likes action/survival types of stories and/or stories about animals.  I think it would be best for 4th and 5th grades.  It could work for 3rd grade as well, but the story is a little longer than some of the others on the WAW list.  Also, the story doesn’t have true dialogue because of the realistic animal characters.  The author’s descriptive writing is excellent, but younger readers/listeners might not be as apt to stick with the story.  There are quite a few illustrations in the book that really add a lot as you are reading.  It would be good if the teacher could project the pictures (using a document camera) while reading.  

If a teacher is contemplating reading A Wolf Called Wander, I would encourage him/her to look for some curriculum connections. Obviously, it is about a wolf in the wild and the reader can learn so much about wolf behavior from this book. In addition, this book could be tied to lessons about habitats, biomes, ecosystems, and symbiotic relationships in nature. (My favorite part of the book was learning about how ravens and wolves can pair up and work together for survival.) At the back of the book there is a map that shows where the actual Oregon wolf (OR-7) journeyed. This could be tied into a maps skills lesson. 

The author, Rosanne Parry, has her own website. I think kids will find it interesting that she writes her books in a treehouse! Also on the website is a Teacher’s Guide for the book. This guide has a lot of great ideas about using the book in the classroom. My favorite was an activity where students go to this website about wolf OR-7 and then create a list of equipment needed for a wildlife explorer to join the expedition that traced the wolf’s route. 

Whenever I recommend a book as a read-aloud for teachers or parents, I encourage them to read the book themselves first. However, I know that time constraints can keep that from happening. So… I always look for possible “trouble spots” - places in the story that might take the reader by surprise. Sometimes it’s a cuss word or a topic that might be “touchy” for a teacher or parent to read aloud. Other times it might be a “trigger topic” - death of a parent, difficult family situations, etc. This book only has one scene that I would forewarn a teacher or parent about. In the scene, the wolf (narrator) witnesses a new baby foal horse being born. The birth is described in graphic detail. There was nothing wrong with this section in the book. It just took me by surprise and might spur questions from kids who have never seen the birth of an animal. I would just want the teacher/parent to be prepared and not caught off-guard.