Okay so a while back I started my ridiculous quest to read every wolf-related book I can get my hands on at the local library. This led to me reading a lot of books about them, including quite a few non-fictions for younger readers. And I think (key word being "think)" that this is about the last one of those I can read until the library adds more to their collection. I've searched their catalog of wolf non-fiction and this is about the last I haven't yet read I can find on there. So let's have a look.
In Wolves, Greenberg takes a look at, of course, wolves. This books shows us various aspects of wolf life, such as behavior, where they live, hunting techniques, sub species, threats to wolves, and more.
Overall a decent book but I do have some issues with it. It has a few outdated/wrong facts, such as calling Ethiopian wolves wolves when they aren't and are in fact more closely related to jackals, despite the name. The subspecies section overall is a bit of a mess as other wolves are referred to as "normal wolves" and "black normal wolves". As if a "normal wolf" (I presume they mean a gray wolf with this one, this may just be my Dutch translation) is a solid whole and doesn't consist out of a ton of subspecies with all sorts of variations. But overall this was a decent book information-wise aside from this section.
Another wrong/outdated fact is (of course) the use of the alpha theory, but they somehow even managed to botch this theory here because it seems to insist that the alpha male is some kind of "general" with ultimate power over his "army" (pack) which even by alpha theory terms is just wrong. This section also completely leaves out the alpha female. Also, a funny more modern and obscure fact that comes along with this, in real-life wolf packs the breeding "alpha" female is actually the one who gets the final say is most cases, not the alpha male. Several more modern wolf non-fiction books have reported on this. So I just think it's funny how contrasting that fact is as opposed to the totalitarian patriarchal regime the book seems to insist wolf packs have.
Then, to make things even weirder, in the next chapter they instead insist that wolf packs are closer to resembling a human family, which is closer to the current theory regarding wolf packs, although they do still use the terms alpha male and alpha female which are sometimes still used nowadays, but the term "breeding pair/male/female" is preferred. Like, which is it? Is a wolf pack in your book an "army" under a strict regime of an alpha male or is it a family with a patriarch and matriarch? Make up your mind, book!
My other main gripe with it really is just the presentation. As a book for children or just younger readers you expect it to look engaging. You know, lots of photos, maybe some color or colorful fonts, a playful layout, some hand-drawn illustrations maybe? But this has to be the most boring-looking wolf non-fictions for this audience I have looked at so far. It's just white pages with large black text and some photos. It doesn't look that engaging to the younger reader. Just very bare bones in the presentation. I've read other wolf non-fiction books for this audience that, despite some wrong facts, had a great presentation that looks inviting to the younger reader. This just looks bland and boring, sans the pretty photos.
So not a very bad book or anything, but it definitely could use some work in the presentation and facts department.
Rating: 2.5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment