Book Review: The Last Wolf by Michael Morpurgo

 

There are a surprising amount of wolf books with this title out there. Ah well. Spoilers ahead.

The book opens with a framing device, an elderly gentleman trying to figure out the Internet. He starts to search it for sources on his heritage. Finally, we are given the story of one of his ancestors, Robbie McLeod, who fled Scotland with a wolf pup named Charlie. Now in the United States, both will find their respective homes.

Boy, this was a quick read. The copy I own is already thin, but the huge text and illustrations make it an even shorter read than I thought. But that does not mean that this is a bad book. In fact, it's quite good.

I really liked going on this journey of discovery with our framing device character. It's not just Robbie's story, but we're given a reason why this story is being told and this made my attachment to Robbie, Charlie the wolf pup and the story itself all the more greater. So I think the framing device really made this story work even better than it already did, even if it is mostly just brief setup and payoff for Robbie's tale.

I also thought the characters, while simple, really worked. Robbie is an instantly sympathetic character and you just feel so bad for the kid. His bond with Charlie the wolf is also nice and it's neat to see them grow up together, form a close bond, and eventually find their respective homes once they reach the states. I think that their bond could've been even more developed if the book had been a little longer, but for what we got it's not bad and it still definitely gets across how much this boy and this wolf pup care about each other. 

So if you're in for a nice, short historical read about a boy and his wolf I do recommend this one. No, it's not the most in-depth Morpurgo book I've ever read, but despite being fast-paced it still really works as the reader forms an attachment to these characters and their story. Especially the framing device makes this form of the story's narration work. I get that this might be a bit too quick for some people, but for me it worked very well.

Rating: 4/5