As my brothers and sisters hatched around me, they were dubbed Mark, Marge, Mandy, Mack, and Matt. Here I was, a minute-old magpie, with a mother named Mag and a father named Max, and they were calling me Maggie! My only consolation was that they weren’t much more imaginative with my five siblings.

“Cute, cute, cute! What shall we call her?” “Isn’t she the most adorable little magpie in the whole world?” my mother crooned. I craned my neck, grabbed the morsel out of my father’s beak, and gulped it down. There were several other grayish-green shells around me, all still intact. My father landed on the rim of the nest and held something over me in his black beak. Lamar wants to make his family happy, but is doing what is expected of him worth losing the only true friend he’s ever had?įull of bite and beauty that will make you think of White Fang, then Ferdinand, this story cuts to the heart of what’s most important: being true to yourself, and being true to others. While the other infractions can be begrudgingly tolerated, this one cannot, and the unity of the pack is in jeopardy.

Blue Boy grows increasingly dismayed at Lamar’s lack of wolf instincts, and then Lamar does the intolerable: he becomes attracted to a coyote. He has little interest in peacocking in front of other clans. He worries if his younger siblings fall behind in the hunt. But Lamar is not turning out the way his father hoped. Blue Boy, the alpha male of his pack, is the largest wolf many have ever seen, and his dream is to have a firstborn son who will take after him in every way. Born into rankings and expected to live up to their roles. A young wolf seeks the bravery to be himself in this “rich take on the wild that quickens the pulse and fills the heart” ( Kirkus Reviews), from the author of National Book Award Finalist Mean Margaret and The Wainscott Weasel.

The Wainscott Weasel by Tor Seidler