Tag: 3/5- Good Read

I liked this one better, too. It has two main characters- young Deneb, a male orca and his older sister Vega. The chapters alternate between each whale’s viewpoint, and are both written in first-person format, so it took me a few chapters to figure out how to tell who was now narrating. There’s a dorsal fin drawing at each chapter head, larger one with a notch for Vega, smooth smaller fin for Deneb. Like the other books I’ve read by this author, there’s lots of illustrations which add so much, I liked seeing all the different sea creatures and plants. Through the story, the reader gets a lot of information about the sea life, the different habitats the whales travel through, and how they interact with other mammals, including the whale groups. It made clear how distinctive the separate orca populations are- their diet, communication and culture are very different. When young Deneb first encounters an adult male from a seal-eating group, it’s like he’s met a foreigner.

It all happens because of two tragedies that befall the whales’ natal pod- a new calf is stillborn, which sets them all to grieving, and Deneb reacts by swimming off alone (unwisely). Then there’s what sounds like (from the descriptions) a large earthquake and tsunami, which separates the whales. Young Deneb and his sister manage to find each other again halfway through the book, but struggle on to locate the rest of their family. At the same time, they’re confused by changes to the environment following the disaster, battling hunger because the salmon have not appeared for their annual run, and puzzling over the things that humans do (or throw into the ocean). Pollution makes them sick, debris gets in the way, loud noises “blind” them in the water. The whales tell each other stories about how awful it was in long-ago times when young orcas were caught and removed from the water by humans- they still mourn those lost babies- but still have it rough nowadays because of the pollution, both from toxins and noise. It might all sound dismal, but there are wonderful things in this story too. Strength of family, courage and perseverance, how much it means for them to be together and support each other. Wonder at the wide variety and amazing details of ocean life, too. I wish this book had been longer, I would have happily kept reading.

Like the previous two, this volume has pages in the back with facts about orcas, the various ocean habitats and other wildlife there, human interactions with and impacts on sea life. The story is based on an actual orca population in the Salish Sea that has been studied for forty years. The only part of it all that felt unrealistic to me was at the end, when the orcas help humans demolish a dam of broken trees and debris (from the earthquake) that is blocking salmon from returning upriver. I wanted to know if that was based on any fact, but can’t find more information about it.

Borrowed from the public library.

Story of a wild horse, from his youth to young adulthood. At first he lives free and loves the feel of the wind in his mane, loves to run and spar with other young horses. He knows that his days of living with his natal band are numbered, that eventually he will be ousted, but that doesn’t happen until a drought comes on the land, threatening all the animals with thirst. While still learning to live on his own, and hoping to join the companionship of other young ‘bachelor’ colts, he has his first encounter with humans. Together with a few other wild horses, he’s driven into a canyon that’s been turned into a trap, and is then corralled. Desperate to be free, but unable to escape. He’s taken to a station of the Pony Express (but of course doesn’t know what this is) and soon -against his will- trained to accept a rider. The goal is to run fast and straight between two points, then rest up and race it again back the other way. This doesn’t make any sense to the horses, but they learn to comply and do their best anyway. Sky communicates with other horses and mules that live among humans (with the horses he speaks in full sentences, the mules and other animals just get phrases across, and the humans are incomprehensible) and finds that most of them see no point in resisting or trying to escape. But Sky is determined to find a way, even if he has to wait a long time for his chance. He starts to recognize that the humans have different personalities and begins to care for some of them, before finally making his escape. Immediately starts for his home range, but finds that things have drastically changed, because of humans destroying the environment in their search for precious metals. Sky finds some of his original band, old friends, all trapped and enslaved by the humans. Can he get them free? and will they follow him to safety? His homeland is ruined, so they must find a new place to live.

I found this story a lot more engaging than the wolf one. It seemed to me that the descriptions were better written, so it didn’t feel quite so dull. Also, the interactions of the horse with other animals, and his encounters with humans, his bafflement at their behaviors and what they were doing to him, was interesting. It reminded me of several other horse stories that started with a young foal born in the wild, then caught and pressed into human service- Smoky the Cowhorse by Will James and Buck, Wild by Glenn Balch. Just like in A Wolf Called Wander, the back of the book has pages with facts about the wildlife featured in the story, the different habitats they lives in, and some history of the region as well.

One thing that was odd to me was how the horses referred to other animals and things in the narrative. For some, the regular names were used: horse, burro, mule, human. But while a bee was called a bee, all other insects were called “flutters.” A cougar was called a “claw beast” (very fitting) but a bear was just a bear. Rabbits and squirrels were “bounders” and “scampers”, a snake was a “slither”, human hands were “grabbers”, the bridle and/or reins were “guiders”, and so on. I just didn’t get why some things had descriptive horse-given names, and other things had their real names.

Borrowed from the public library.

Story of a wolf, based on the life of a real wolf (OR-7) studied from a pack in Yellowstone. You can even see a map of where he went. Of course a lot of this is made up, showing things surmised from the wolf’s perspective, but the actual places he traveled is factual. Called Wander in this story, the young wolf is growing up in his natal pack, finding his place among his littermates, learning skills, then helping with the next year’s new pups. Aspiring to be a leader someday and lead his own pack. Then calamity strikes, when a rival pack moves into their territory and scatters them. Wander is now alone, frightened and having to fend for himself. He misses his packmates, can’t bring down large prey solo, and vacilitates for quite a while between wanting to run away/move on to new/safe territory, and feeling compelled to stay and find his missing packmates, reunite with some of his family. He does eventually encounter a brother, but they can’t manage to stay together. Wander is forced to move on, and travels a thousand miles through the Pacific Northwest. He traverses strange lands, with different ecosystems he’s not used to, encountering animals that are new to him (he can’t run fast enough to catch a pronghorn!) the mysteries and dangers of man-things (barbed wire, paved roads and vehicles), and then runs into humans themselves- which confuse and frighten him. He’s baffled at meeting a domestic dog, whose company he craves because it seems so much like a wolf, but whose closeness to the human things unnerves him. For a while he forms a partnership with a raven. Gets injured by an elk and struggles to recover. Faces thirst in dry lands, and the terror of fire driven by the wind. After a long, tiresome and dangerous journey, he finally comes to a land that feels more like home- mountainsides with cooling trees and thickets with deer, clearings with elk. Meets another young lone wolf, and at long last is able to form his own pack.

Nice story, especially how realistically it reflected the life of a wolf in the wild. At the back are several pages telling about the wolves, the other wildlife they share habitats with, the studies that follow the original OR-7. I liked that while the wolves talked to each other, the never discussed things that wouldn’t concern a wolf, and couldn’t converse in the same way with other animals (Wander would guess at what the raven’s gestures meant, but the sounds were foreign). Have to admit I was disappointed not to see a conclusion to the encounter between one of his siblings and a porcupine! He also has interactions with wild horses and cougars, tries catching fish after watching a bear do so, and many other events. Actually quite a lot happens in this relatively short book. What surprised me was- it felt too easy. The simple language and present tense narrative had me bored. Normally I’d be annoyed at this and would have set the book aside, but my reaction was the opposite- I was happy to find myself bored with this book. Maybe that means I’m ready for harder reading material! I did request from the library a few others written by this author (there’s another wolf story, one about a wild horse, and another about an orca). I’m curious if it’s just the style here, or the comprehension level that I’m responding to.

I read quite a few Zilpha Keatley Snyder books when I was a kid, I remember most of them having a surreal or fantasy element- sometimes in the background, but definitely there. Gib Rides Home is so much more down-to-earth. She said it was written in tribute to her father, who spent part of his childhood in an orphanage in Nebraska. The main character is Gibson, who’s been in an orphanage since he was six. He barely remembers his previous life, just a few muddle scenes, nothing substantial. The first part of the story is about his difficult life with the other orphans, the privations and abuse they often suffer, and their ways of getting along. Most of it is not pretty. Gib has a dream that keeps him going: a dream to be adopted into a loving family with lots of kids, a big house, etc. He builds on this dream whenever he can, waiting for sleep to come or sitting in the dark of the punishment room. Then one day a shock: a man comes to take him away. But it’s not a real adoption- he’s being farmed out- basically free labor for a local family. Gib is worried this will be worse than the orphanage, he’s heard of farmed-out kids being worked brutally hard, fed little, and exposed to harsh weather conditions.

He can’t believe it seems like his dream is coming true when he gets taken into a large, well-to-do house with lots of people in it. Soon finds out that the reality of this family is tough to handle, even if a lot of things here are far better than where he was (the food, for example, is great). Most of the people in this household are adults, most of them stern or unfriendly, and the one child practically refuses to speak to him. In fact, she seems to hate him for no reason he can understand, and the father of the house acts like he doesn’t exist. Gib is stunned to realize that some things in this household jog his memory- he’s connected to this family in some way, though nobody will tell him how or why. It takes a long time to tease the truth out of people: something to do with a past tragedy, and the family falling on hard times. Most of the answers he gets only raise more questions. In the meantime, he works hard at his chores, makes the most of what little schooling is provided, and finds that he has a natural ability for working with horses. It’s his love of the horses that starts to bring more answers out of the family. Right when he’s figured out what’s really behind everyone’s attitude towards him (and the horses), he becomes more hopeful for the future, but then it looks like things will all fall apart . . . except they do come right suddenly again, at the very end. Leading straight into the next book, I’m assuming.

So it was more of a mystery than anything else, I think- though I did love reading all the parts about how Gib worked with the horses, the joy and feeling at ease he found there. Some of the parts about the orphans and how other farmed-out boys were treated are really difficult to read: be forewarned. Bodily harm, physical abuse and neglect, even to the point where one boy dies.

Borrowed from the public library.