Julie of the Wolves

Julie of the Wolves

Author: Jean Craighead George

ISBN: 0064400581

Publisher: Harper Collins, 1997

Age: 9-12

Genre: Realistic fiction, Adventure

Summary: To her small Eskimo village, she is known as Miyax; to her pen pal in San Francisco, she is Julie.  When she runs away from her husband’s parents’ home she soon finds herself lost in the Alaskan wilderness, without food, without even a compass to guide her.  Slowly she is accepted by a pack of Arctic wolves, and she grows to love them as though they were family.  With their help, and drawing on her father’s teachings, Miyax struggles day by day to survive, and find out who she is…Miyax or Julie.  But the time comes when she must leave the wilderness and choose between the old ways and the new.  Which will she choose?  Miyax of the Eskimos – or Julie of the Wolves? 

Read A-likes: Julie; Julie’s Wolf Pack; Island of the Blue Dolphins; and My Side of the Mountain.

Personal Thoughts: This book fired my imagination as a kid, along with My Side of the Mountain.  I have always loved the outdoors, and what kid didn’t think about running away and living in the wild at some point?  I honestly credit this book with my love of wolves.  I’ve always thought they were beautiful and would love to have one as a pet.  This book, along with the rest in the series, teach some very good moral and identity lessons.  These books can help kids work through those issues of identity without the needing to run-away-and-live-in-the-woods-step.