Jean Craighead George

The thrilling Newbery Medal–winning classic about an Eskimo girl lost on the Alaskan tundra Julie of the Wolves is a staple in the canon of children’s literature and the first in the Julie trilogy. The survival theme makes it a good pick for fans of wilderness adventures such as My Side of the Mountain, Hatchet, or Island of the Blue Dolphins. This edition, perfect for classroom or home use, includes John Schoenherr’s original scratchboard illustrations throughout, as well as bonus materials such as an introduction written by Jean Craighead George’s children, the author’s Newbery acceptance speech, selections from her field notebooks, a discussion guide, and a further reading guide. To her small Eskimo village, she is known as Miyax; to her friend in San Francisco, she is Julie. When her life in the village becomes dangerous, Miyax runs away, only to find herself lost in the Alaskan wilderness. Miyax tries to survive by copying the ways of a pack of wolves and soon grows to love her new wolf family. Life in the wilderness is a struggle, but when she finds her way back to civilization, Miyax is torn between her old and new lives. Is she Miyax of the Eskimos—or Julie of the wolves? Don't miss any of the books in Jean Craighead George's groundbreaking series: Julie of the Wolves, Julie, and Julie's Wolf Pack.

Julie of the Wolves

While running away from home and an unwanted marriage, a thirteen-year-old Eskimo girl becomes lost on the North Slope of Alaska and is befriended by a wolf pack.

Julie of the wolves

Rowan Myers

I'm fairly sure I'm giving this book such a high review out of nostalgia and not out of its inherent quality.

Pavonini

Just wanted to re-read this book to see if it's as good as I remember. It is! Was totally immersed once again in the Arctic ecosystem, but this time round I actually noticed the more personal aspects (like why Julie/Miyax left and went into the wilderness). When I read this the first time I cared mostly about the wolves, and completely idolised Miyax for how she could read nature's signs and communicate with animals. Honestly that's still true, but this time I'm less inclined to want to follow in her footsteps. 

Anyway, give this book to your children. Read it yourself. It's beautiful.

Discovered from the back of this edition that there's a film, so I'll be looking that up soon. Will probably read the sequels too (now I know they exist).

Celeste Richardson

Actual rating: 3.5 stars, rounded up.

When I was 9 years old, I picked up Hatchet for the first time, because all of the boys in my class were obsessed with it. I immediately shared their obsession and had to find anything else that featured a young person surviving alone in the wild. I read the rest of Brian’s Saga, and The Island of the Blue Dolphins, and My Side of the Mountain and the books that followed. I also read this book and the rest of the trilogy. I haven’t read Julie of the Wolves in over 20 years, and I didn’t remember nearly as much about it as I thought it did. Which made it a fun story to revisit.

I’ve always had a soft spot for any story that takes place in Alaska, so I especially loved the setting of this particular series. Julie, or Miyax, as she prefers to go by her Eskimo name, is a great character. I love that our protagonist is a very capable female, which isn’t as common in this small subgenre of children’s novels. However, I had completely forgotten how much sadness there was in this story, and that there was a scene involving a near rape. I’m often surprised when I revisit a children’s classic by the content that I don’t recall, that obviously didn’t bother me when I was a child. Which, in my opinion, is an argument for why we shouldn’t ban books to protect our kids. The vast majority of the things we’re worried about either won’t bother the children we are trying to protect, or will lead them to asking big, and very important questions.

This was a refreshing revisit, and I loved my time with Miyax and the wolf pack that becomes her family. There’s nothing like a children’s classic when you’re needing a mental palette cleanser.

Libby G

This book is very good! If you like wolves you will Love this book!

Kate

I read this for my reading group in 5th grade and pretended to hate it but then read both sequels. I can't remember the third one at all though.

Also (rape cw), I and my other 10-year-old friends thought it was hiiilarious that there was a mention of sex (or, as the character put it, "mating") in this book and had no idea we were laughing about attempted rape. So we were probably a little young for this. (Also, maybe not the best choice that the implied-to-be-developmentally-disabled character is sexually abusive?)

Julie of the Wolves

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