Lupé: A Wolf Pup's First Year

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

Lupé loosely follows a wolf pup, along with her two siblings, from her
April birth in a den in Yellowstone National Park until some point in
late fall, a time curtailment that seems inappropriate given the
book’s subtitle. The book is essentially an introductory teaching tool
about wolves (especially their pup-rearing behaviours), and Grambo uses
a somewhat anthropomorphic approach. Consequently, the wolves speak to
each other, and readers have access to the wolves’ thoughts.

Grambo’s decision to have the pups ask questions, such as “Do all
animals live in packs?,” so that information can then be provided in a
response, comes across as too “teachy.” At times, the book seems to
lose its focus, and so, while young readers will gain some information
about trumpeter swans, otters, burned-out forests, and geysers, such
inclusions seem tangential to the work’s primary purpose.

Format-wise, the text appears on one page, while full-colour
photographs occupy the other page; occasionally there is some variation.
Cox’s photographs of the wolf pack are outstanding; young readers will
ooh and aah over the images of the cute wolf pups and be impressed by
those of the mature wolves. The amount of text per page, the length of
sentences, and Grambo’s language choices suggest that readers would
need to be in at least Grade 3 in order to handle the book
independently. Recommended with reservations.