[.ca] Lone Wolf (ISBN 0763629960)

Lone Wolf:
The book Lone Wolf, by Kristine L. Franklin, is a heart filled story about a boy named Perry Dubois. I liked this book because you can see and feel how Perry grows into a new person after tragedy. A lot of the feelings that Perry has, relate to the feelings people occasionally have. That is important. He thought that he would be just fine on his own. He didn't need other people. He wasn't lonely. After his little sister died, and his mom left his dad and him, he could be alone forever. This all changed after he met Willow. This book is similar to my life, because Perry Dubois can only be friends with a girl, because no other boys live around him. When I was little, before very many kids moved into my neighborhood, the only person I had to play with was a boy. No girls lived around me, although it changed after a few years. This is when Perry tells his father that he is going looking for a wolf with a girl. "Well, one of those girls, Willow, saw a wolf up on the big granite slab. She drew a picture of it. She has a big family and her mom's an artist. I think her dad is too. We're going looking for wolf foot-prints and stuff like that. (Franklin, 78) The title of this book, Lone Wolf, means exactly what the book is about. Perry Dubois's life was just like any other kid his age's. But when his mother and his sister were in a car wreck, and his little sister was killed, his mom never got over it. She cried all the time, his father couldn't stand it, Perry couldn't either. After a year, Perry's mom walked out on them. He and his father moved into a forest about five miles away from town. Perry and his father rarely talked. Perry spent a lot of time in his cave that he discovered in the forest. The only other house around was vacant; The Bennet House, until The Pestalozzi Family moved into it. Willow and Perry met in Perry's cave. The cave is actually on Willow's family's property. He's frightened of loosing his cave, it was his private resort where he could get out of his less-than-satisfying world. "You're trespassing." My stomach dropped down to my knees. No! Could it be true? Could my cave, my wonderful secret hideout, my privacy place, be part of the Bennet House property? That possibility had never occurred to me. (Franklin, 31) When I read the book, Lone Wolf, at times I felt very sad and sorry for Perry Dubois. Other times, when Perry is able to have fun, I felt good for him. He had such a depressing life, but as the book goes on, he gets to be happier. After Willow came into the picture, he was growing fond of her family. It was a happy event when the Pestalozzi Family invited his father and him over for Christmas eve. Perry got his father to accept the invitation and go, but when he went into town for firewood, it was snowing too hard for him to come home. "Did my dad call or anything?" I asked Mr. P when I got to the table. "No Perry," he said sadly. "And it's snowing really hard out. I doubt if he'll make it back, so we'll go ahead and eat. Dinner has been ready for more than an hour. We may get fifteen to twenty inches tonight." "He'll make it," I said, trying to sound sure of myself. "He's got the blade on the truck." "Some sections of the highway are closed," said Mr. P. "We'll save some food for your dad, just in case." "You can stay with us, Perry," said Willow. She pushed her glasses into place and blew a long strand of dark hair out of her face. "We can pretend you're part of our family, like a cousin or a brother or something." She grinned and wiggled her eye brows up and down. (Franklin, 196) This is an example of how a sad situation can turn into a happy one.

Lone Wolf:
Lone Wolf was an excellent book. It is about a boy named Perry who lives in the woods. Perry has adventures in the woods and has a very Merry Christmas in the turnout. If you like adventure and sad times this is a book for you.

Lone Wolf--Lone Wolf's a great book:
The book LONE WOLF is a great book by Kristine L. Franklin. The main character Perry Dubois is home schooled and his parents have just gotten a divorce. The conflict the main character experiences is living with his dad and never seeing his mom. The story is about a boy named Perry Dubois who lives in Minnesota with his dad and his dad delivers firewood. Perry finds someone to play with when new people move in by his house. At first Perry feels uncomfortable around the new people but later in the story he gets more comfortable with them and he makes friends with them. I think this is a good book because its an easy book to understand and it creates suspense.

Kids enjoy the story; Easy book to teach:
This is the story of Perry, the lonliest kid in the world. In response to the tragic death of his daughter and separation from his wife, Jack Dubois takes his son, Perry to a secluded, forested region of Minnesota, then becomes the stereotypical "silent tough guy." As a result, Perry (who is also home-schooled), has no friends and nobody to talk to. He is self-reliant until a new family moves into the nearby Bennett House: A large family of talkative artists from California. Perry is upset about this (as I know I would be if talkative artists moved in next door to me), especially because the only family memmber his age is a girl (ewwwwwww!). Slowly, Perry and Jack open up to each other and build interpersonal relationships. While I don't think this is Kristine Franklin's best book, it is a good one. I taught it to my fifth graders who enjoyed it a lot. One good thing about this book is the fact that Perry is a dynamic (changing), three dimensional character, so we can focus on him and how he changes during the novel, while the other characters are largely one-dimensinal. This is not a criticism of the book: it allows the young reader to identify with the characters and predict what his/her reactions will be ("Dad will say nothing, Willow will talk a lot and be annoying," etc.), so that reading comprehnesion is easier. In sum, I recommend this book because kids enjoy the story, the static characters make reading it easy and because it's generally an easy book to teach.

Good:
I liked this book. It's not the best I've ever read, but it was enjoyable. I liked it!