White Fang (Puffin Classics) (Paperback)

by Jack London (Author), Annabel Large (Illustrator) "Dark spruce forest frowned on either side the frozen waterway..." (more)
Key Phrases: grey cub, White Fang, Grey Beaver, Beauty Smith (more...)

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.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Puffin (November 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140366679
• ISBN-13: 978-1858137407
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (149 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #491,327 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	Paul McGrath (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unmatched, November 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: White Fang (Apple Classics) (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.

12 of 12 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 (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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.