TO THE TOP OF THE WORLD

Beautiful, almost unbelievable color photos of an Arctic wolf pack by a man who, like Farley Mowat in Never Cry Wolf (1963), describes the months he spent in the wild with them— fubsy cubs, an angular, unkempt teenager he called Scruffy, no- nonsense leaders (Brandenburg named the alpha male Buster, after his father). Splendid photos depict cubs playing and learning to howl and the best hunter catching a hare; in one exciting sequence, the pack circles musk oxen protecting their calves, finally isolating and killing one. In the end, the photographer became almost an honorary pack member, though far down in the pecking order. Altogether, a fascinating firsthand account, with some interesting observations about not anthropomorphizing wolves; the author also wonders whether the wolves ``attributed wolflike feelings to my odd human behaviors.'' (Nonfiction. 8+)