Marvelous Middle Grade Monday: WOLF STORM

Isn't this one HECK of a COVER?!!

Dee Garretson is one of my pals over at Project Mayhem, yet I had never read her novels. But WOLF STORM was nominated for the Cybils by Dean Oester, and I plowed in.

I'm very happy I did. The story was gripping from the get-go. A snowy movie set in the Carpathian mountains. Child actors who have to act alongside (tame) wolves. And the possibility of wild and hungry wolves prowling about--I tell you, several times, the hair at the back of my neck stood up, things were so tense.

Opening Lines: "Snow lay thick in the ruins of the castle walls, drifting over the best hiding places."

The Characters: It's Stefan Andris's first movie role, but the pressure to perform is taxing. It doesn't help that his co-star, Raine Randolph is such a diva. The third child-actor, the much-younger Jeremy Cline, is already "showing too many signs of latching on to (Stefan)," and has asthma and a lot of fears. When the children are marooned in the ski lodge in which they're staying, with only the elderly and ailing actor who plays their grandfather, they have to deal with avalanches, injuries, and wild wolves who are so starving that they shed their innate fear of humans and begin to stalk them. The kids have to come up with a plan to escape, or else their very lives will be in peril.

Verdict: This is one thrilling book. I can see it being popular with boys as well as girls. I couldn't stop turning the pages to see if the kids would in fact make it safely off the mountain without loss of life. My hat is off to Dee for creating such a fast-paced and engrossing story.