"All dogs have a bit of wolf in them. It's been proven by science." So says Homer, the "wolfish" narrator of Andrea Zuill's charming Wolf Camp, who sleeps on a dog bed with an electric blanket.
Sometimes Homer sneaks up on the unsuspecting purple stuffed animal, Mr. Moose. He dreams of running with wolves in mountain meadows. So when a flyer advertising Wolf Camp tumbles out of the dog-food bag ("Have you ever felt like howling at the moon? Come join us!"), he knows he just has to go. Homer follows his people around with the flyer in his mouth until they break down. "I'm going to be a wolf!" he thinks happily as he heads off in a yellow school bus to the weeklong camp. Fang and Grrr, the wolf counselors, give a terrifying safety talk, warning Pixie, Rex and Homer not to chase the cats, who are "bigger here than back home," to stay away from grizzly bears, and "finally, never trust a squirrel." Dinner, oddly, has "hair on it." (Homer writes a letter home asking for some of "Grandma Polly's Pampered Pooch Doggie Snacks, the bacon-flavored ones.") Still, back home on his heated dog bed, Homer does feel a little different inside: "I was an honorary wolf. Ahh-whoooo...."
Zuill's wonderful pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations, complete with cartoon bubbles, comically contrast the needle-nosed wolves and the collared, previously pampered pooches. This would be the perfect book to send off with kids for a summer-camp surprise. Giggles are guaranteed, as the wee ones get a little wolfish out there in the wilderness. --Karin Snelson, children's & YA editor, Shelf Awareness