White Fang (Scholastic Classics) [Paperback]

Jack London (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0439236193 | ISBN-13: 978-0439236195 | Edition: eleventh printing edition

With an introduction from award winning K.A. Applegate, White Fang is one of London's classic tales of survival and one of his most popular stories. White Fang is part dog, part wolf, and the lone survivor of his family. In his lonely world, he soon learns to follow the law of the North--kill or be killed.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Gr. 6-8. Ed Young, whose haunting illustrations of the wolf made his Caldecott- winning Lon Po Po (1989) so memorable, was well chosen as the illustrator for the Scribner Illustrated Classics edition of White Fang. Jack London's 1906 novel. As many will remember, London tells the story of a wolf-dog who endures great cruelty before he comes to know human kindness. The 12 pastel illustrations illuminate the text with their dramatic use of light and dark, sensitively delineated forms, and soft, subtle shades of color. A handsome new edition of a longtime favorite. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Publisher

This book is in Electronic Paperback Format. If you view this book on any of the computer systems below, it will look like a book. Simple to run, no program to install. Just put the CD in your CDROM drive and start reading. The simple easy to use interface is child tested at pre-school levels.

Windows 3.11, Windows/95, Windows/98, OS/2 and MacIntosh and Linux with Windows Emulation.

Includes Quiet Vision's Dynamic Index. the abilty to build a index for any set of characters or words. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks; eleventh printing edition edition (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439236193
• ISBN-13: 978-0439236195
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (450 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #811,983 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 71 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Story January 6, 2010

By Cheryl Koopmann

Format:Kindle Edition

This is a great story that I have read many times. It is one of those books that I fall back on when I need a comforting story to read.
It follows the life of one poor dog as he moves from one master to another, and even ends up as a fighting dog at one point. Its a bit like "Black Beauty" I guess seeing as it follows an animals life, but white fang is more of a story. White Fang is not just some docile horse but a real wild dog that has survived where others haven't. A great read and a great story.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Unmatched November 28, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Mass Market Paperback

This is one of my favorite books. The only other book that might be better is The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, but Jack London has definitely outdone himself this time. It is the story about an animal who is three quarters wolf and a one quarter dog who goes from life as an indian sled dog to a fighting dog owned by a cruel man, to a loving owner who trys to show this maddened savage creature the meaning of love and kindness. What is really unique about White Fang is that it tells of what might be going on in such a creature's head. It tells of what it is like living in a den out in the wild, tells of how White Fang first comprehends the wild and what he learns aboout the law of life. It explains what his first impression of humans, and of the harsh enviorment of all the other puppies and dogs in the camp. It is beautifully written and I would suggest it to anyone who likes long, thought provoking stories about dogs and wolves and the northlands.

53 of 59 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Adventure in the Wild December 3, 2003

By Paul McGrath

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

As a boy I used to love books like this, about untamed nature and woodlore and woodcraft, but it has been many years since I've read them. I recently had the occasion to revisit this excellent novel, and found that it has aged quite well and is still a terrific read.

The story has to do with a wolf named White Fang, and begins before he was born, with his father and mother leading a pack in the dead of winter in the frozen Canadian wilderness. There is no game around and all are starving. They harass and harry a beleaguered dog-sled team over the course of several days, picking the dogs off one by one, then finally surrounding the one remaining man. He builds a ring of fire to protect himself from these ravenous wolves, but knows he soon must succumb to exhaustion. He notices the she-wolf, sitting patiently outside the ring, seemingly indifferent--except for the string of drool coming out of her mouth in anticipation of making a meal out of him.

That is the lesson here, in this story of White Fang. It is a savage world, a world in which you either kill or are killed, eat or are eaten. His first day out of the den he kills and eats a small bird, then in turn is almost eaten by a hawk. He observes a porcupine roll itself into a ball to defend itself against a lynx, then observes the lynx yowl in pain after foolishly getting stung. The lynx plays another prominent role. Trying to survive a typical lean winter, White Fang's mother takes the desperate step of going to the absent lynx's den to eat its offspring. The enraged lynx later comes to their den and attacks, but with the help of a growing White Fang, they defeat it. It also becomes a meal....

White Fang eventually gets taken in by men, first an Indian tribe where he is "tamed" with brutality, then by white traders who use him for their own base purposes. Through it all we see the cruel world in which he lives and feel his pain and hunger and anger. It is a well-plotted adventure carefully observed, and serves as a great reminder of how savage the untamed wilderness is, and that mankind is often only a bare step above it. Read more ›

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars the white fang February 17, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Two men are out in the wild of the north. Their dogs disappear as they are lured by a she-wolf and eaten by the pack. They only have three bullets left and Bill, one of the men, uses them to try and save one of their dogs.He misses and is eaten with the dog. Only Henry and two dogs are left, he makes a fire, trying to drive away the wolves. They draw in close and he is almost eaten, saved only by a company of men who were traveling nearby. The wolves are in the midst of a famine. They continue on, lead by several wolves alongside the she-wolf, and when they finally find food the pack starts to split up. The she-wolf mates with one of the wolves and has a litter of pups.Only one survives after several more famines, and he grows strong and is afeisty pup. They come to an Indian village where the she-wolf's, who is actually half-wolf, half-dog, master is. White Fang is the main character of the book. His mother was half wolf,half dog. His father was full wolf. He starts his life in the wild, but becomes more and more of a dog after he and Kiche, his mother, go to the Indian camp. He is naturally quite strong and agile, but other dogs and humans are mean to him so he turns these skills into fighting skills,becoming fierce and unloved. It is only when he meets Scott, the first human to ever show kindness to him, that his character changes and he becomes a loving dog. This book is about a wolfdog who was born and raised in the wild and has grown up to be a true hero. His first owner was an Indian named Gray Beaver who got tricked into selling him. The man who he got sold to was a crude man named Beauty Smith. Beauty beat White Fang and put him in a cage to fight other dogs. Then a man named Weedon Scott took care of White Fang. White Fang grew up to love Weedon.... The two of them moved to Weedon's family's house to stay there. White Fang learned many things in the city and did what Weedon expected. This is a great book, one of the best that I've ever read, so Isuggest you read it! Read more ›

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars London's companion to "Call of the Wild" October 25, 2005

By D. Cloyce Smith TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

In 1904 London wrote to his editor about his idea for his next book: "Not a sequel to 'Call of the Wild.' But a companion to [it]. I'm going to reverse the process. Instead of a devolution or decivilization of a dog, I'm going to give the evolution, the civilization of a dog--development of domesticity, faithfulness, love, morality, and all the amenities and virtues."

That, in a nutshell, is the plot of "White Fang." And because London designed the books to be mirror images, the second book is almost inevitably compared to the first (especially because the earlier book is far more widely read). It's a worthy companion (or sequel) to "Call of the Wild," and it imagines in far more detail what life in the wild and in the human world must seem like to a dog. The opening perspective, too, is different; while "Call of the Wild" begins when Buck is a young dog, "White Fang" opens before the hero is born, describing a famine that afflicts his half-wolf mother and full-wolf father and continuing through his birth and puppy-hood.

The action for "White Fang" picks up noticeably when the young wolf stumbles upon a tribe of nomadic Indians. From there, his life is beyond his control, changing hands from owner to owner, first as a sled dog and then as a fighting dog, until he is rescued by a humane master. More than twice as long as "Call of the Wild," "White Fang" describes many more adventures and characters. At the same time, what distinguishes "Call of the Wild" is its powerful, insightful brevity; here, London's imaginings are more expansive.... Even as London philosophizes about human life allegorically, through the mind of the dog, his passages at times border on exaggerated anthropomorphism, such as when White Fang sees San Francisco for the first time: "Through it all, behind it all, was man, governing and controlling, expressing himself, as of old, by his mastery over matter. It was colossal, stunning. White Fang was awed. Fear sat upon him. . . . As never before, he felt his dependence on the love-master, close at whose heels he followed, no matter what happened never losing sight of him."

Revisiting "White Fang" for the first time since I was a teenager, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it--in spite of the its occasional heavy-handed prose. Even more unexpected (especially for those of us who have read a lot of fiction by Jack London), is the novel's sentimental ending, which will probably bring a tear to many an eye. But it's not just a kid's book--or, more accurately, maybe it's just written for the child in all of us. Read more ›