Saturday, September 10, 2011

Have A Pack Of Fun!


I’m delighted to share my book
Family Pack (Charlesbridge, 2011).



















I have always been fascinated by wolves. I first had an opportunity to investigate the lives of wolves and wolf pack behavior when I wrote Growing Up Wild: Wolves (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2001).






















Later, I interviewed experts who have spent long careers studying wolves in the wild to write Animal Predators: Wolves (Carolrhoda Books, 2004).


That was when I talked to Dr. Doug Smith, director of the Wolf Restoration Project at Yellowstone National Park. I’ll never forget the day he told me the story of Female 7, one of the first wolves set free in Yellowstone in March, 1995. Almost seventy years earlier, people trapped and killed wolves to eliminate this top predator from Yellowstone National Park.



All those years later, people realized, you can’t fool with mother nature. Every animal in an ecosystem has its role. Wolves helped eliminate sick, weak, and old animals keeping populations of grazing animals, like elk and deer, from becoming huge—too big for there to be enough food for them to eat.




What struck me as exciting was that the young wolf scientists called Female 7 didn’t choose to remain part of the pack people artificially created. She immediately set off into the wilderness on her own. Of course, no one knows exactly what she experienced or how she reacted. Family Pack is her story as I imagine it happened. The ending is known. Female 7 and Male 2 met. I suspect it was love at first sniff. When they mated and had pups, their family pack became the first naturally formed pack in Yellowstone. Scientists called it the Leopold pack. Over the years since then, the pack has grown into one of the strongest and largest packs in Yellowstone National Park. Female 7 and Male 2 are no longer living. However, their descendants continue to hunt the same territory Female 7 first claimed when everywhere she went hers were the first wolf prints to mark the ground in over seventy years.

























You may want to share these activities before you read Family Pack. Or enjoy them as follow-up fun to reading this story.





1. Family Pack opens with a young female wolf heading off on her own into Yellowstone National Park. There are no other wolves anywhere around. Imagine if you were suddenly in a wilderness where you were the only human. How would you feel about that? What might you find exciting? What might make you feel frightened?










2. For wolves, the world is given shape and texture as much by scents as by colors and shadows. Close your eyes and have an adult partner guide you into different rooms of your home. Can you tell where you are just by what you smell?






Next, close your eyes while your adult partner cuts or peels an orange, an apple, or a banana. Sniff this fruit. Then have your partner hide the mystery fruit so you can’t look at it. Use crayons or paint to color a piece of paper, sharing your impressions of this fruit based solely on how it smelled. For example, rather than using orange to show that fruit choose a color to share how sweet it smelled and make the color dark or light to indicate whether the odor was strong or faint. Sniff the mystery fruit again and decide if you want to add additional colors to share additional impressions you get of this fruit.





Finish by showing your picture to another family member. Can they identify whether your picture shares an orange, an apple, or a banana? Then have your partner reveal the mystery fruit and let everyone share sniffing and tasting it.




3. At one point in the story, the young female thrusts her muzzle skyward and howls. Where she used to live, her voice would have drawn a chorus of other wolf voices and the arrival of her family. Try it! Have family members scatter throughout the house. Then you move to wherever you want your family to meet up. Start your family’s chorus by tipping your head back and giving a good loud howl. Have each family member join in with a howl that is slightly different than yours and thus uniquely their own. Each family member should also move toward you between howls. Repeat until your entirely family has found you.






Did howling help you find each other?
Did you find you were quickly able to identify each family member by their individual howl?
Imagine how you would feel if, like the female wolf in the story, you howled and your family never found you?






4. The young female wolf finally becomes able to catch prey to feed herself by practicing her hunting skills. Name at least five things practice has helped you learn to do better.





5. Finally, one day, the young female discovers she’s no longer the only wolf in her home territory. When she first meets the young male they sniff each other, rub heads, and lick muzzles. Like wolves, people have customs for greeting someone new? Think about how people you know respond to being introduced to someone.









What are the traditional customs for greeting new people in each of the following countries:
Cambodian
China
France
Grenada
India
Japan
New Zealand Maori
Singapore
Thailand
Tibet

If you're not sure about the local customs for greeting people, click on each of the following links to investigate.

Greetings in Other Cultures

How do greetings differ around the world?

Greetings Around the World






6. Family Pack has a very happy ending. I don’t want to spoil it by telling you what happens. You’ll need to read it for yourself. Once you do, decide why this is such a happy ending for the female wolf.



Don’t miss the websites and books to explore, plus the amazing wolf facts, that are supplied at the back of Family Pack.

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