Smoke: A Wolf's Story

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

White Fang meets David Copperfield in this story about a slightly
spoiled 12-year-old boy who chooses to run away to live on London’s
streets rather than give up the Canadian wolf he has secretly raised
from a cub. Although subtitled “A Wolf’s Story,” the book is
really about a kid named Zan with Smoke the wonder-wolf as his loyal
lupine sidekick.

As Zan and Smoke wander the streets, Zan is mugged by a couple of bad
street kids but later befriended by Five, a nice street kid. Zan and
Smoke end up living in a colony of homeless teens headed up by Grandpop,
a grizzled old war veteran. (There are also some elements of Lady and
the Tramp as Zan and Smoke make the acquaintance of Mr. Alassi, a gruff
but kindly old Italian restaurant owner who feeds Zan and Smoke
spaghetti.) One might think that skulking about London with a nearly
full-grown wolf could conceivably attract attention, but Zan seems able
to elude everyone who is looking for him, except for Tansy Briar, a
tenacious young rookie reporter who turns out to have a heart of gold.

While this book is passable, stronger writing, better dialogue, and a
less-hackneyed plot could have made it good. Not a first-choice
purchase.