LitPick Review
Promise of the Wolves takes place approximately 14,000 years ago, in a place called WideValley, back when humans were still sort of evolving. The story is told from the point of view of a wolf called Kaala, the main character of the book. The lives of the wolves revolve around a promise made by Indru, one of the first wolves. The rules were: never consort with humans, never kill a human, and kill any wolf that has mixed blood. Kaala was born with the power to either help or destroy her pack and all of wolf kind. When she was born, Ruuqo, the leader of the Swift River pack, attempted to kill her because he was afraid of her powers and because she had outsider blood. However, Ruuqo was stopped by two Great Wolves, who had great power over the other wolves. They allowed Kaala to live because of the white crescent-shaped marking on her chest; it was a symbol of her great power. Ruuqo grudgingly let Kaala stay in the pack, but made survival very difficult for her. Kaala soon befriended two pups of Rissa's (Ruuqo's mate) litter. They were both runts and they respected her. One was named Azzuen, and the other, Marra. Two others of Rissa's pups, Borlla and Unnan, also made Kaala's life difficult for her. One day, Kaala found a girl stuck in the river, and saved her. Kaala was fascinated by humans, so she followed the girl to her camp and repeatedly came back. Some time later, the girl, TaLi, brought Kaala to her grandmother's house. TaLi's grandmother was a shaman, and still had the ability to speak to animals. She told Kaala that the wolf legends weren't entirely true, and that the Great Wolves were hiding something from both the humans and wolves. A few months later, Kaala, Azzuen, and Marra overheard some Stone Peak wolves in their territory planning an attack. At first, they thought they planned to attack Swift River, so they told Ruuqo. Torell, the leader of the Stone Peaks, explained that they weren't going to attack Swift River, but the humans instead. Earlier that day, the same Great Wolves that saved Kaala tried to take her away from Wide Valley because they were going to kill every wolf and human if they started to fight. Kaala refused and ran back to tell Azzuen and Marra. Now, Kaala had to find a way to stop the wolves and humans from fighting.
Opinion:
Promise of the Wolves was a great book. It reminded me of Children of the Dawnland with the connections humans had with nature. I really like stories that take the point of view of an animal, so that the reader can experience the kind of lifestyle the animal has. I didn't like the fact that the grown up wolves would yell at the pups a lot; they just seemed really mean sometimes. I thought it was really cool how the ravens would talk in haiku (a Japanese poem of three lines, five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second, and five syllables in the third line).
