The Wolf Wilder

Product Information

I badly wanted to love this book. On the surface, it holds so much promise: why wouldn't I be excited about a sharp-elbowed Russian heroine who spends her time teaching partially domesticated wolves to howl again? Plus, I've enjoyed the author's other works, and I've been excited about this one since I saw it on display (but not being distributed) at ALA. It is, without a doubt, one of the prettier books I've bought this year.

It has made me realize that fantasy, Si Fi and action and adventure are not the only books that I like. Feo, more than any other character she’s written, is how she felt as a child: awkward and wary, but hoping always for friendship and for snow. The plot was made up of things she’d seen or discovered and loved. The girl was Russian, and although her hair and eyes and fingernails were dark all the time, she was stormy only when she thought it absolutely necessary. Which was fairly often.The story alone is beautiful, but what brings it to the next level for me is the history. Learning about wolf wilding is awesome and man was that a profession in need of a novel if there ever was one. Even more, The Wolf Wilder is set in the waning period of Tsar Nicolas II’s reign. Without feeling remotely textbooky or infodumpy, there’s a lot of history laid out really subtly in The Wolf Wilder. This was a simple, yet powerful little story about bravery and the power of friendship. It's set in snowy Russia and features some pretty adorable characters with a lot of personality and even more heart.

A gorgeous flight of imagination set in a snowy Russian fantasy world, this has both the beauty and the fierce, funny and uncompromising storytelling style that sets Katherine Rundell's books apart. The Wolf Wilder is a Faberge egg of a novel - rich, bright and perfect Robin Stevens The culmination of the story and several of fight scenes throughout the book seemed too farfetched for children the size of adults to ride wolves like horses made you think perhaps these wolves were meant to be a different size to the ones in our world but this wasn't explained. The repetition of children getting the better of armed Russian guards became silly, one armed guard was taken out by a child's ballet manouevreYou very much started it! You’re pointing a gun at me.’”You might have to suspend some disbelief in the fact that there was a separate children’s revolution in Russia (which never happened), but this book contains such a powerful message, especially at this politically tumultuous time. Children are our future, whether we want to believe it or not, and oftentimes their words, actions and ideas can make all the difference.

The only thing I would change was the character of the boy who accompanied Feo. He seemed to be very weak, then suddenly very strong with nothing really in between. I found this vexed me for I would have enjoyed watching the boy go through the journey slowly. Others may disagree with me, but that was how I found it. This also prevented me slightly from imagining the boy’s features for a while.The wolves, of course, positively steal the show. The passages about the wolves - their mistreatment at the hands of humans, their indomitable spirits, Feo's interactions with (and love for) them - are among the most beautiful in the book. Even though it was written for children, the author keeps it real. She doesn't dumb it down for kids. In fact, there are even some pretty dark events that take place in this book. Expect to find a few drops of bright red blood in the pure white snowy landscape. Expect to love it even so. If you care about the look and feel of books, do buy this one in the beautiful hard-cover edition. The combination of Rundell's spare, elegant words and Gelrev Ongbico's delicate, smoky illustrations is truly transporting. The mood is Russian winter, folklore and fairy tales and wood-cuts, in all of its dangerous beauty. This book made me feel mixed emotions; sadness because of the unfortunate events that occurred along the journey; excitement and joy as Feo got closer and closer to meeting her goal; suspense – would Rakov find Feo and punish her? Would Feo find her mother? I sleep with a dictionary under my pillow, sometimes. Just to remind me that there are more words in the world than 'Come here, boy.'"