EYE OF THE WOLF

Two allegorical stories, one of a boy named Africa and one of a captive Alaskan wolf who has only one eye, Blue Wolf, merge through a unique device in this unusual tale by French author Pennac: the boy and wolf communicate solely through eye contact. The boy mysteriously appears at the wolf's cage. "He stands there silently, without moving a muscle. Only his eyes shift." The boy stays each night until the wolf is asleep and returns before he wakes. One day Africa does something "strange that calms the wolf and makes him feel more at ease. The boy closes an eye." The wolf then tells his story to the boy, through images in his pupil, and their communication slowly melts Blue Wolf's mistrust of humans; this opening up paves the way for another—he can finally open his scarred second eye. As the boy tells his own tale, which, like the wolf's, reveals the cruelty of human beings, readers learn of his gift with animals, from his long desert days upon a camel's back. Through their shared gaze and stories, the boy and wolf forge a kind of kinship and help each other heal. The stark narrative style keeps an intense hold over readers, and the dreamlike mixed-media illustrations in an impressive array of shadowy charcoal tones reinforce the graceful mingling of real and surreal events. Ages 10-up. (Feb.)