With the well-hyped sequel of this book coming out soon, I thought that I would play catch up with this book. On the whole, this story is a fine middle-grade fantasy about an extraordinary group of arctic wolves who have befriended and are raising a young girl named Stacy who had been found alone in the forest. They also rescue the occasional animal in trouble in their area. The relationship between Stacy and her wolf family is the mainstay of the story and should be the foundation on which a terrific tale or set tales can be built. The suspension of disbelief over a 12-year old that has taught herself to cook, farm, and woodwork along with homeschooling herself and her wolf friends that can apparently read, cook food, and shoplift, while still being typical wolves, isn’t all that difficult and actually quite fun. It is when the story tries to touch on real-life issues that the story falls apart.


While the bones of the story are okay, the meat of the story (if you will pardon the pun) reads like propaganda from an author with an agenda to push. The basically “Animal Good - Humans Bad” mantra wouldn’t bother me, but it is so riddled with inconsistencies, the story loses flow. Seemingly out of deference to her, her wolf pack doesn’t hunt, yet they kill and eat fish and she raises chickens, which she slaughters herself, in order to eat. She criticizes the human’s interference with animals following their basic instincts, namely hunting, yet when another wolf pack, that she knows is in need of food is hunting a dog, she and her team race to the rescue.

Reading the author’s bio, much of what doesn’t make sense in the story does become a bit more clear as it is obvious that this story began as a novelized Minecraft adventure. Honestly, if that had been included in the story synopsis, I might have enjoyed the story more while reading it. I am certain there is an audience for this book as it well written and has potential. I really did want to know more about Stacy’s backstory and the wolf characters are beyond interesting. I would hope future installments could be more adventures with Stacy and her pack and less PETA-style human bashing
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