Product Description
With powerful and rare photographs by Jim Brandenburg, Once a Wolf explores the long, troubled relationship of humans and wolves. The book traces the persecution of the wolf throughout history and also reveals the role scientists have played in wolf preservation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Extremely biased literature
This book is extremely biased. Swinburne fails to address the damage that the reintroduction of wolves has done to our livestock and to our deer and elk population. These wolves are killing our domestic pets and our livestock, leaving cattle and sheep to suffer and slowly bleed to death while ranchers wait for biologists to show up and determine if wolves are to blame for the attacks. In Lowman, Idaho, our children can no longer be left to play in the yard because the wolves are waiting for easy prey. (And what chance does a five-year-old have when a wolf can take down a bull elk or moose? Seriously...) Swinburne neglects the UGLY side of this debate, and I find this book terribly offensive.

Balancing The Scales of Nature
A study in the perserverance and dedication of a group of people to bring the wolf back to its own enviroment in the wildernesses of Yellowstone Montanna.Full of information this book will elate you as well as sadden you, but the winner here of course is the wolf who once more runs free on his land.

Excellent overview of the wolf's history & current issues
Jim Brandenberg always brings the wolf into our homes vividly and with great skill through his photographs, and in this book, these exquisite photos are paired up with the informative writing of Stephen Swinburne. Swinburne covers an excellent range of topics in this short (but highly-informative) book, including the history of the wolf's extermination in this country, early conservationists, wolf behavior and social structure, myth-busting, the Yellowstone project, and the wolf's future prospects.

He brings in quotes and information from Leopold, Mech, Bangs, Askins, and many other notable figures in the wolf conservation movement to give correct facts and information. I wouldn't call this a book for younger children; it's written at perhaps a teenager's level, and younger children might find the statistics and assorted other information boring. However, Swinburne does cover the bittersweet story of wolves Numbers Nine and Ten, which personalizes the struggles wolves today face.

Swinburne manages to succinctly cover most of the important issues in this relatively brief book (about a half hour's read, perhaps 45 minutes,) and it's a great way to educate yourself or someone else on the basics of wolf conservation. Highly-recommended!

What a great book!
I just took a look at this book and was so impressed. The subject is fascinating, of course, but I'm especially taken with the clear, cogent writing, the terrific quotes, and the truly remarkable photographs. I definitely recommend this for any kid (or adult, for that matter) with aninterest in wildlife.

a thoroughly moving natural history lesson for all ages
My 7 year old and I read this book together recently and I think that I learned as much as she did.

I knew about reintroduction of wild wolves into Yellowstone but this book told the whole story.Get ready to beimpressed with personal sagas of determination and bravery on the part ofpeople who care about wild things.

In 1973, while on a field trip inJasper Park, Alberta, I saw two wild wolves (a white and a black) boundingand romping in the snow. I will never forget the wildness of that sight.This book is richly illustrated with photographs of wolves that give you aglimpse of that wildness.

Get this book and read it with a child toshare what Rachel Carson called that "sense of wonder" thatchildren have.Be prepared to explain why we systematically exterminatedthe wolf from its range throughout the United States and why we paid peopleto kill wolf puppies.

This book is a moving, thoughtful lesson in ecologyfor children of all ages. ... Read more

Product Description
Describes the gray wolf and its behavior, explains its status as an endangered species, and suggests what can be done to help save it. ... Read more