Lone Wolf Book

Living up in the north woods, Perry Dubois and his dad don't see other people much. Perry's dad likes it that way, and Perry is getting used to it, too. So when Willow Pestalozzi and her large family move in nearby, Perry is not all that happy about it. For starters, Willow and her sisters ask too many nosy questions. Like, why doesn't Perry go to school? And where's his mom? And how does it feel to be an only child? But even though the Pestalozzis remind Perry of everything he wants to forget, he can't help being drawn to the generous warmth of their family. Kristine L. Franklin sends a bolt to your heart in an extraordinary novel that reveals how learning to laugh again also means being able, at last, to cry.

Children's Literature

Perry Dubois and his taciturn father have fled to the north woods of Minnesota following a family tragedy and a resultant divorce. At first, Perry wanted to be "strong like Dad, to never feel lonely, to never miss anyone," and at first it works. Yet the isolation has eaten away at Perry, and the effort of repressing his grief has become almost unbearable. Into this figurative and literal cold place comes the rowdy Pestalozzi clan, and Perry finds a friend in oldest daughter Willow as well as a surrogate family to nurture his soul. Franklin's straightforward narrative is as stripped-down as the north woods in December; yet like a winter landscape, it contains small, telling touches of beauty.