Stars: 5
Author: Michelle Paver
Format: 295 pages, some drawings.
Reading level: grades 5/6 and up





Summary: This is book one of an ancient native story, based 6,000 years ago in North America. Torak, a native boy unwillingly adopts an orphaned wolf-cub as a pet when his father dies. He must then defeat a demon-possessed bear that roams the land. The bear killed his dad; Torak must fulfill a prophecy by delivering three lost artifacts to the Mountain of the World Spirit; must solve a riddle to obtain the artifacts, with the help of a girl who goes from enemy to friend.

My son received this book as a gift and it took him a long time to get started due to its sheer size. The writing is somewhat hard to read as there are lots of figures of speech. The book is narrated by Torak, his friend, and also by the wolf cub. I found the latter really interesting. The wolf, for example, thinks that Torak is also a wolf, but calls him 'tall tailless' and is frustrated by his inability to smell as well as he does, and so on. Somewhat difficult to read, but very good. Smaller readers may need help explaining some of the text.

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