ORPHAN OF THE TUNDRA

by Verne T. Davis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1968

Boy finds and befriends wounded wild animal, then returns him to his natural environment rather than turn him over to a zoo--with no particular zing but under unusual circumstances. When Tom Ericsson first brings the baby musk ox south to Winnipeg (by plane), the Canadian Wildlife Service just wants weekly reports. An enterprising youth, he exhibits his domesticated Woolly and hitches him up for sleigh rides to pay for feed. More than a year later, refusing to give up his pet (Wildlife official request) to a zoo, he hitches up the sleigh for one last time to leave Woolly with his own kind--some 1000 miles north across the tundra. Domestication of the musk ox is being considered by naturalists but a sixteen-year-o1d who never needs a band-aid--even on the walk home--is stretching rugged, individualism into Bunyan proportions, even if he is picked up 400 miles north of home after using his last match to signal a helicopter. Loaded musk-etry.

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Weybright & Talley

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1968

Categories: FICTION