Customer Reviews

Wolf: The Journey Home

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the touching, sometimes heart-wrenching, story of a real-life group of wolves. Ms. Bowen wrote it as fiction, but it is fully based on real events. We have class sets of this novel at my school and it never fails to be a hit. It's a winner with MG and YA readers.

In 2006 it was nominated as a Teens' Top Ten book and has flown under the radar since then. This is one of those books that has failed to receive the acclaim it deserves.

This book warmed my heart. I laughed, Awwwed, and Cried. The author sets you up well and really gets you to know the characters. Then she sends them off to be killed due to starvation, cars, and poachers. I highly don't recommend this book for ANYONE under 13 due to it's Painfulness. I had to put the book down at times because it was so sad. Chapter 28 was the most devastating to me. If you have read the book you know what i am talking about. All in All i give it 5 stars because it made me love reading again. I loved it and i know you will to. :D

vERY GOOD. i WOULDN'T RECCOMMEND THIS FOR YOUNGER KIDS BECAUSE iT WOULD CONFUSE THEM. oN THE SCALE FROM 1 TO 10 I WOULD GIVE IT A TEN.i HOPE ASTA BOWEN MAKES ANOTHER GREAT BOOK

I am 12 years old. I am a writer myself, I am writing my own book about wolves, it's almost finished. But this book, Wolf The Journey Home really reached out to me. This book not only is absolutely stunning, but yet it takes you into the real life of a wolf. This story of true events, told by 'Asta Bowen is an epic, and an epic that you will never forget.

'Asta Bowen truly puts this book in a way that I just cannot describe. Every word is so gentle, the sentences are so delicate, and they book flows together so smoothly. I was so fascinated with this book that I read it in a matter of 3 days, and let me just say, it's almost a 300 page book.

Marta is a wolf that's alone in the world. She could have easily died many times; but Marta is brave, she is strong, and she is a survivor. All her life Marta was never wanted. She wasn't wanted by her birth pack, so she roamed around until she found her place in the world. But soon enough she is alone once again. Life has always been trying to push her down, and it was hoping that one day she would stay down. But Marta has only one permanent name. She only cares about one thing, surviving. Marta proves herself worthy of a good life, but she never gets it.

'Asta Bowen really takes the reader into the world of a wolf. Every detail is told, and by the end of this book you will realize, such as I did, that in the end there is nothing more to tell. I love this book so much. In fact I almost started it again right after I had already finished reading it the first time. If you will just devote a small amount of your time to reading this book you will not regret it. 'Asta Bowen really reaches out and grabs the reader, it's almost like she pulls right into the book itself. You feel as if you are Marta. Books are amazing and sometimes they aren't. I hate reading a book when I don't like it. Whenever I get a book that I like it's soon read in a matter of a few days. This book is beyond what I can say. It would take me forever just to think of the right words to say about this book. But please read it. My mother always tells me that if I want to be a great writer I have to always be reading great books. This book truly helped improve my writing by a mile. After I read this I knew exactly what I needed to fix in my book.

I am Juliet Taylor, and out of all the books I have ever read, this one stands out the most. Also Where The Red Fern Grows was a good one, but Wolf The Journey Home beets it by just a little bit. This book is breath taking and I recommend it to all readers regardless of who they are.

-Breath taking.
-Stunning.
-The will to survive.
-Hope.
-Life.

Wolf: The Journey Home, also known as Hungry for Home: A Wolf's Odyssey, is not an easy book to read, as it tells a truly heart wrenching story that pulls no punches in its realistic depiction of its subjects. The primary character is a black wolf named Marta, the alpha female of a small pack of wolves that consists only of her pups, herself, her mate, and an old toothless wolf. After her mate is killed, her pack is captured and relocated to a different part of Montana in an effort to protect them. Once they are released, however, the terror of her experiences causes Marta to abandon her pack to desperately try to return to the territory she knows. The novel follows her life during the long journey home, but also the fates of the pack she left behind.

There is no "Disney" treatment here to try to make the story sweeter or add happy feel good moments. The animals do not talk nor does Bowen add a lot of anthropomorphizing. It is simply a recounting of the wolves' lives, primarily Marta, based on the real life circumstances that befell a wolf pack from Pleasant Valley, Montana both before and after it was relocated in the late 1980s. According to the authors notes at the end, she used the actual records of these wolves lives as written wildlife biologists and Fish and Game officials to pull together the major events of the story. The rest she created based on four years of research on wolves.

This is not a "happy" story, unfortunately, but it is a well-written one that highlights the tragedy of human/wolf relationships and the difficulties of relocating wolves away from those who would kill them. Fair warning, the story will likely make you cry, and the epilogue even more so. While I'd recommend it for young and adult readers alike, parents should be prepared to discuss the events of the story with particular young readers after.

Although I enjoyed "Wolf; the journey home," I found it to be a little boring. The wolves were interesting, complex, and realistic, but I was continuously discouraged when they repeatedly perished. As soon as I started to really like one of the wolves, they would die, thus leaving me drained emotionally, and wondering why I was reading the book to begin with. I understand that the author was basing her book on actual wolves and their lives, but I had hoped that there was some other message in the book besides: "Humans don't understand wolves, and it's the humans' fault that the wolves are dying." There was one human at the end who was kind, but he seemed to be the only human portrayed in a good light, and I was a little annoyed. I also wish that at least one of the main wolves could have been invented fictionally and stayed alive through the entire book. Overall, I enjoyed the book, but not its message, and I wished that more of the wolves came out okay in the end. That is why I give this book four stars.

I was very impressed with Asta Bowen's novel of a wolf pack's struggle to find a homeland! I have found most books in which wolves, (or any animal, for that matter) play the lead role are a bit too anthropomorphic, and the wolves have the minds of humans. However, I was pleasently surprised to find WOLF containing little to no human-like sentimentality at all. Highly reccomended to wolf and dog lovers young and old. HIGHLY RECCOMENDED TO FANS OF NIK SAWE'S "WOLF TRAILS