Book Review: Wolves, Boys, & Other Things That Might Kill Me by Kristen Chandler

Shy, outdoorsy, reserved, and clumsy in more ways than one, KJ has lived her whole life in West End, Montana, a tiny town mostly populated by ranchers on the edge of Yellowstone National Park. Her mom died in a car accident when she was a baby, so it's just KJ and her irritable, surly and mostly silent dad. When she's not in school or doing homework, KJ helps her dad run his sporting goods store and guide hunters and fishermen during the tourist season. Nothing ever changes in West End - until Virgil and his mom, a wolf biologist from Minnesota, show up to study the Yellowstone wolf packs for the year.

Virgil is like a breath of sunshine for KJ - blonde surfer hair, all smiles, and he doesn't know all the embarrassing things KJ's ever done like the rest of the boys in school. When KJ and Virgil are assigned to work together on a wolf column for the school paper, she thinks the school year might just turn out okay.

But wolves aren't a topic to mess around with in West End. The ranchers harbor a deep hatred for the wolves, especially after the U.S. government re-introduced them to Yellowstone. Wolves eat livestock, which means money and livelihood lost. Pretty soon, KJ and Virgil are taking a lot of crap from the ranchers' kids and their parents for their Wolf Notes column.

When Virgil's pro-wolf float in the Christmas parade gets hit by a shotgun blast (some of the spray catching him in the face too), the smouldering tensions between the ranchers and the environmentalists in West End ignite. KJ finds herself caught in the middle. Her dad doesn't want her to get involved - the last thing they need is the hunters and ranchers boycotting their store. But Virgil and his mom have shown her that wolves deserve a chance too - and they do a lot more than just kill livestock.

Wolves, Boys, & Other Things That Might Kill Me follows KJ through her junior year as she tries to figure out who she is, where she comes from, and who she wants to be. With tons of awesome detail about wolves in Yellowstone and life in small town Montana (negative 20 degrees at the Christmas parade, anyone?), new author Kristen Chandler deftly shows both sides of the wolf story, painting neither the wolves nor the ranchers as the bad guys. You'll struggle to choose sides just like KJ does - before you realize that there isn't a 'right' side, just many different ways of looking at things.

Megan
(who just finished Happyface by Stephen Emond, one of the 15 finalists for the 2011 Milwaukee County Teen Book Award - check out Katie's review of this awesome boy book!)

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