ALA Booklist (Tue Jun 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)

Considering the current trends in teen fiction, one might take a look at the title of this debut novel and mistake it for yet another werewolf saga. Sixteen-year-old KJ Carson lives in a small town outside Yellowstone National Park with her widowed father. A bit of a loner, KJ signs up for a journalism class at her high school, where she meets Virgil. Virgil's mom is a biologist who studies wolves and their packs, and with Virgil's help, KJ decides to write a column about the wolves that have been reintroduced to the park after near extinction. No one, especially KJ, is prepared for the political firestorm that erupts surrounding her column, as the wolf-reintroduction program is hotly debated between ecologists and the ranchers whose sheep and cattle are threatened daily by wolves. Suddenly, KJ and Virgil become targets of violence. There is a lot going on here mance, politics, father-daughter issues t it all takes a backseat to the wolves, and teens with a budding interest in conservation and ecology will be the best audience for this book.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Sixteen-year-old KJ is a spitfire who is outgrowing life with her father (her mother died when KJ was three) in a small Montana town just outside Yellowstone National Park. ""All I know is that if he says I've 'bloomed' one more time I'm going to run away from home and become a shrub,"" she says of her emotionally remote father. Together they run a fishing supply store and work as guides in the park, but when dashing Virgil moves to town with his progressive mother on a wolf research trip, KJ becomes determined to live down her reputation as a ""free-floating oddball."" She works on the school newspaper as part of her journalism class and teams up with Virgil, a photographer, to launch a ""Wolf Notes"" column, which ignites outrage among those who view wolves as menaces (wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone in a controversial 1995 program). Chandler's debut is a lively drama, saturated with multifaceted characters and an environmental undercurrent. She writes persuasively about the great outdoors, smalltown dynamics and politics, and young love. Ages 12%E2%80%93up. (May)

Voice of Youth Advocates

KJ Carson is a high school junior in a small Montana town near Yellowstone Park. Normally an inconspicuous ranching community, her town has become a flash point of anger directed at the federal governmentÆs Wolf Reintroduction Project, which has increased the regional wolf population. Residents who view the animals as predatory nuisances are outraged that KJ and a handful of others in the town are supporting the reintegration policy. Anger quickly turns to harassment and violence when ranchers, local businesses, and ecologists collide over the consequences of reintegration. Along with this social chaos, KJ must also navigate her own murky waters. How far will she go to stand up for the wolves? What does it mean that her views are endangering the safety of both her father and her new boyfriend? This book will appeal primarily to students in junior high and early high school. Older readers may consider some of the characters clichÚd. The concurrent romantic storyline will appeal to teens, even though it crosses the line into soap opera with the well-known formula of a small town girl enamored by a worldly young man who is charming and a bit mysterious. The larger storyline also lapses at times into implausibility for the sake of drama, as when KJ single handedly confronts a mentally unstable character in the middle of a lake after he has threatened her. Nonetheless, this is an engaging story of self discovery.ùChristina Fairman.

School Library Journal (Tue Jun 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)

Gr 7 Up-Chandler's debut novel is a classic coming-of-age tale set in Montana shortly after wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park. KJ Carson, 16, lives with her father, who runs a business as a guide for hunting and fishing parties. While on a hunting trip with him, the teen watches a wolf get torn to pieces by other wolves. Her father tells her not to forget it. He explains, "The minute that wolf backed down it was all over." KJ and the new kid in school, Virgil Whitman, team up to create a column for the school newspaper entitled, "Wolf Notes." He takes the pictures and she writes the articles. The column causes controversy in this small town where the wolves are hated by local ranching families. The more KJ learns about the animals, the more she is fascinated by their fearlessness. Relations with town members turn ugly when Virgil is shot at in the Christmas parade and soon after someone starts a fire at KJ's father's store. Should KJ back down? The author cleverly integrates facts about wolves and their return to Yellowstone through KJ's newspaper column. The plot moves swiftly to a suspenseful finish. Beautifully written and thought-provoking, this well-rounded novel will appeal to girls, some boys, and conservationists of all stripes. Samantha Larsen Hastings, Riverton Library, UT

Kirkus Reviews

KJ, 16, has enviable wilderness skills honed by years of fishing and guiding tourists through Yellowstone National Park. A city boy named Virgil has come to the small Montana town where she's lived all her life, though, shaking things up. Virgil and his mother get KJ involved in wolf watching, and KJ, who is also the editor of her school paper, starts a column about wolves that divides the town. Many residents have lost livestock and therefore livelihood to wolves, and they're not receptive to the idea that wolves might be a crucial part of the local food chain. As a character, KJ is often sullen and not endearing, but her brains and bravery when standing up for the wolves are admirable—although the author occasionally gets heavy-handed as she hammers home the importance of standing up for one's beliefs. Despite their differing backgrounds, Virgil and KJ's up-and-down romance is one of emotional and intellectual equals, lending real strength to this environmentally themed rural twist on the typical suburban love story. (Fiction. YA)