Look to the North: A Wolf Pup Diary - Hardcover

Born in Washington, D.C. and raised in a family of naturalists, Jean George has centered her life around writing and nature. She attended Pennsylvania State University, graduating with degrees in English and science. In the 1940s she was a member of the White House press corps and a reporter for the Washington Post. Ms. George, who has written over 90 books - among them My Side of the Mountain (Dutton), a 1960 Newbery Honor Book, and its sequels On the Far Side of the Mountain and Frightful's Mountain (both Dutton) - also hikes, canoes, and makes sourdough pancakes. In 1991, Ms. George became the first winner of the School Library Media Section of the New York Library Association's Knickerbocker Award for Juvenile Literature, which was presented to her for the "consistent superior quality" of her literary works.

Her inspiration for the Newbery Medal-winning Julie of the Wolves evolved from two specific events during a summer she spent studying wolves and tundra at the Arctic Research Laboratory of Barrow, Alaska: "One was a small girl walking the vast ad lonesome tundra outside of Barrow; the other was a magnificent alpha male wolf, leader of a pack in Denali National Park ... They haunted me for a year or more, as did the words of one of the scientists at the lab: 'If there ever was any doubt in my mind that a man could live with the wolves, it is gone now. The wolves are truly gentlemen, highly social and affectionate.'"

The mother of three children, Jean George is a grandmother who has joyfully red to her grandchildren since they were born. Over the years Jean George has kept 173 pets, not including dogs and cats, in her home in Chappaqua, New York. "Most of these wild animals depart in autumn, when the sun changes their behavior and they feel the urge to migrate or go off alone. While they are with us, however, they become characters in my books, articles, and stories."

Kindergarten-Grade 3. George uses a journal approach to illuminate the first 10+ months of life for three wolf pups born to an alpine tundra pack. Each entry in the "diary" is prefaced with a message (in colored inks) to readers/listeners living south of the area telling them how to keep "tundra-time" in the framework of their own seasons. "When you see dandelions turning silver...." "When the yellow warblers return...." "When you are eating fresh blueberries...." Then, George writes, "Look to the north" and in the following paragraph(s), she describes the pups, their gradual development, and their environment. The lyrical text is accompanied by large, realistic acrylic paintings of the adult wolves, the pups, and their habitat along with small cameos of the southern reminders?a clump of dandelions, a yellow warbler (the illustrator should consult a Peterson guide), ripe blueberries, etc. The author's research is impeccable, and her affection for her subject evident, affirmed in a personal note. Children will take pleasure in the simply worded narrative and the warm pictures, and will store some accurate wolf data in their memories, as well as take stronger note of their own habitats as they keep an eye out for dandelions, for fresh blueberries on the table, and for Halloween jack-o-lanterns on front porches.?Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.