The Wolf Effect: A Wilderness Revival Story

Working in prose, rhyming verse, panel-style art, and sweeping spreads, Parry (A Wolf Called Wander) and Thermes (A Place Called America) tell the absorbing story of what happened when wolf packs were reintroduced into Yellowstone Park. Following introductory pages that detail the park’s 1872 creation—including the way “Indigenous Americans, prospectors, trappers, and settlers were removed”—a facsimile of century-old newspaper headlines trumpet that “Yellowstone Park Is Free of Wolves.” Rhyming verses jump from the subsequent disappearance of other wildlife to the 1995 reintroduction of wolf packs “to help mend the country/ Where once they did roam.” In speech balloons, a coyote worried about the impact of the wolves’ diet is reassured by a bear: “They’re all elk, all the time.” And indeed, the elk, again hunted by wolves, soon leave the streambeds, leading to regrown brush that provides food and shelter, and welcomes multiple species—the newly returned animals are pictured against broad, dramatic mountain vistas in pale blues and golds. Though the myriad storytelling forms don’t always cohere, this rare work about successful environmental regeneration reveals how the reintroduction of a predator can rebalance a habitat. Human characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Extensive back matter concludes. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Fiona Kenshole, Transatlantic Agency. Illustrator’s agent: Marietta B. Zacker, Gallt & Zacker Literary. (May)