THE WOUNDED WOLF

When a gravely wounded wolf stumbles up Toklat Ridge, a scouting raven calls out his signal of coming death. The white fox, the snowy owl, and a grizzly bear close in. But the wolf's pack leader hears the raven's message too, and, noting that Roko had not answered the "hunt's end" roll call, he finds the wounded one and brings him food, offering scraps for the scavengers, until days later Roko is healed. A prefatory note informs us briefly that "During his ten-year study of wolves in the Alaskan wilderness, scientist Gordon Haber, Ph.D., observed the leader of a wolf pack save the life of a wounded wolf." Many readers might prefer a straightforward account of that observation to this mood-summoning, present-tense reconstruction with its "poetic" ragged right margins. Nevertheless, it's good news—and Schoenherr's black-and-white drawings help set the mood,