Summer of the Wolves

An orphan girl finds kinship with a motherless wolf pup in this "little gem of a book for all wild-hearted lovers of the natural world" ( Kirkus, starred review) Twelve-year-old Nika just wants a place to call home. Since she and her younger brother Randall became orphans, they've moved from one foster home to another. And now they're making the biggest move of all—leaving California to visit their long-lost Uncle Ian, a wildlife biologist who lives in rural Minnesota. While the change is daunting, Nika soon makes unlikely friends with the wolves her uncle studies, and with a local boy who hates to see them locked away in cages. Polly Carlson-Voiles's debut middle grade novel explores themes of searching for family and finding a balance between caring for wild animals and allowing them to go free.