The Wolf’s Boy by Susan Williams Beckhorn (review)

Born with a clubfoot, Kai is considered cursed; he was left to die by his father, according to the customs of their Paleolithic tribe, but a female wolf saved his life. He therefore has an affinity for the yellow wolf pack that lives nearby, adopting an orphaned pup and naming her Uff. She and Kai learn to hunt together, but the unprecedented bond between the boy and his wolf, along with a few unfortunate accidents, increases suspicion among the tribe, and Kai must leave to protect Uff from being killed as a dangerous wild animal. Their journey involves both danger and triumph for Kai, as he is able to complete his rites of passage and become a blood hunter in ways that would have been denied him had he stayed. While the events in this imaginative reconstruction of prehistory, including Kai’s older brother’s recovery from an attack by a big cat and Kai’s taking down a fully grown cave bear, are sometimes more wish-fulfilling than strictly realistic, this first-dog, coming-of-age, and survival story hits all the right psychological notes for the middle-school reader. Kai is an appealing underdog while Uff is just an appealing early dog (an author’s note clarifies that while Kai calls Uff a wolf, she’s really a dog). Beckhorn creates her prehistoric setting with a light touch, providing just enough details tied to what we do know about the period without overburdening the plot and giving Kai period-appropriate gifts of art and music to compensate for his disability. Give this to readers who enjoy animal stories and wilderness survival tales.