Wolves of the Calla (The Dark Tower, Book 5)

Book Description

Set in a world of extraordinary circumstances, filled with stunning visual imagery and unforgettable characters, the DARK TOWER series is unlike anything you have ever read.

Here is the fifth installment, "one of the strongest entries yet in what will surely be a master storyteller's magnum opus" (Locus).

Roland Deschain and his ka-tet are bearing southeast through the forests of Mid-World on their quest for the Dark Tower. Their path takes them to the outskirts of Calla Bryn Sturgis. But beyond the tranquil farm town, the ground rises to the hulking darkness of Thunderclap, the source of a terrible affliction that is stealing the town's soul. The wolves of Thunderclap and their unspeakable depredation are coming. To resist them is to risk all, but these are odds the gunslingers are used to. Their guns, however, will not be enough....

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"Roland Deschain and his ka-tet are bearing southeast through the forests of Mid-World, the almost timeless landscape that seems to stretch from the wreckage of civility that defined Roland's youth to the crimson chaos that seems the future's only promise. Readers of Stephen King's epic series know Roland well, or as well as this enigmatic hero can be known. They also know the companions who have been drawn to his quest for the Dark Tower: Eddie Dean and his wife, Susannah; Jake Chambers, the boy who has come twice through the doorway of death into Roland's world; and Oy, the Billy-Bumbler. In this long-awaited fifth novel in the saga, their path takes them to the outskirts of Calla Bryn Sturgis, a tranquil valley community of farmers and ranchers on Mid-World's borderlands. Beyond the town, the rocky ground rises toward the hulking darkness of Thunderclap, the source of a terrible affliction that is slowly stealing the community's soul. One of the town's residents is Pere Callahan, a ruined priest who, like Susannah, Eddie, and Jake, passed through one of the portals that lead both into and out of Roland's world. As Father Callahan tells the ka-tet the astonishing story of what happened following his shamed departure from Maine in 1977, his connection to the Dark Tower becomes clear, as does the danger facing a single red rose in a vacant lot off Second Avenue in midtown Manhattan. For Calla Bryn Sturgis, danger gathers in the east like a storm cloud. The Wolves of Thunderclap and their unspeakable depredation are coming. To resist them is to risk all, but these are odds the gunslingers are used to, and they can give the Calla-folken both courage and cunning. Their guns, however, will not be enough. "

Customer Reviews:

A Must Read Series.......2007-10-09

Roland is the last living member of a knightly order known as gunslingers. The world he lives in is quite different from our own, yet it bears striking similarities to it. Politically organized along the lines of a feudal society, it shares technological and social characteristics with the American Old West, as well as bearing magical powers and the relics of a highly advanced, but long vanished, society. Roland's quest is to find the Dark Tower, a fabled building said to either be, or be located at, the nexus of all universes. Roland's world is said to have "moved on," and indeed it appears to be coming apart at the seams -- mighty nations are being torn apart by war, entire cities and regions vanish from the face of the earth without a trace, time does not flow in an orderly fashion; even the sun sometimes rises in the north and sets in the east. As the series opens, Roland's motives, goals, and even his age are unclear, though later installments shed light on these mysteries.

This series was mostly inspired by the epic poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" by Robert Browning, the full text of which was included in an appendix to the final volume. In the preface to the revised 2003 edition of The Gunslinger, King also identifies The Lord of the Rings, the Arthurian Legend, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as inspirations. He identifies Clint Eastwood's "Man with No Name" character as one of the major inspirations for Roland. King's style of location names in the series, such as Mid-World, and his development of a unique language abstract to our own, are also influenced by J. R. R. Tolkien's work.

The Dark Tower is often described in the novels as a real structure, and also as a metaphor. Part of Roland's fictional quest lies in discovering the true nature of the Tower. The series incorporates themes from multiple genres, including fantasy fiction, science fantasy, horror, and western elements. King has described the series as his magnum opus; beside the seven novels that comprise the series proper, many of his other books are related to the story, introducing concepts and characters that come into play as the series progresses.

Epic storytelling and more.......2007-09-05

With the Dark Tower series Stephen King has managed to combine an epic fantasy quest with classic Old Westerns, a bit of gothic horror, and urban fantasy thrown in for good measure. What you get from this mix is a series destined to be a classic.

Roland the gunslinger from Gilead and his ka-tet, having survived a giant mechanical bear and other evils in Wizard and Glass, stumble upon the small town of Calla Bryn Surgis. Once in a generation this town with an unusually large number of twins, must give up half of its children to "the Wolves" who take them to the dark land of Thunderclap for a few days and send them back as raving idiots who eventually grow into giants and die in their thirties. Just like the little Mexican town in the classic Western the farmers of this small community ask the traveling gunslingers to help them fight off the bad guys, but this is no ordinary Western.

King has his heroes traveling back and forth to 1970s New York on their quest to save the rose that is the Dark Tower, too, fighting bad guys along the way and discovering the bizarre connections between his world and ours. Also, thrown into the mix is the disgraced Father Callahan of 'Salem's Lot, Maine who just happens to be the local priest in the Calla. Add to that Susannah, a recovering schizophrenic member of the ka-tet, who is carrying something unspeakable in her womb, a robot named Andy who serves the farmers of the Calla by carrying messages and telling horoscopes, and you've got the most unusual adventure story to come out in years.

Amid all this King spins out a story that is both compelling and homey somehow. I felt like I was listening to him tell it by a campfire on a crisp autumn night. Even if you are not normally a Stephen King fan b/c you don't read horror fiction give this book, and this series a try. Fantasy and Sci-fi fans will especially love it.

Beware if you are offended by violence and language. It is not the worst out there, but this is adult stuff.

The Dark Tower series went from classic to rubbish in this entry. .......2007-08-31

I love the first four books in this series, but when this crappy follow-up came out, I found that it sucks hard. The story is stupid and the writing is lame. Its garbage. Ignore this rubbish and stick with Dark Tower Novels 1-4.

Stephen the king.......2007-08-29

I admire Stephen Kings work. He is one of the few writers out there, who actually gets better with every book he writes. The Dark Tower series, I feel is quite simply Kings quintessential story, his master piece.

It has taken him most of his adult life to write his tale of the 'The Gun Slinger', but my wasn't it worth the wait. I fully recommend this book, most people who are considering this book, I imagine will already be fans of the series, and you will not be disappointed! For those who are new to Roland's tale, what are you waiting for, 'The Tower' awaits......

Stephen King Dark Tower Series.......2007-07-25

tThis book arrived in a timely in excellant condition, and packaged very good. I was pleased with all

Average customer rating:

Turning point
Too much Spanish!
Another Great Book from McCarthy
McCarthy proves that he does humorous as well as grim - a review of "The Crossing"
stark, desperate country

The Crossing (Border Trilogy, Vol 2)
Cormac Mccarthy
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0394574753
Release Date: 1994-06-07

Amazon.com

The opening section of The Crossing, book two of the Border Trilogy, features perhaps the most perfectly realized storytelling of Cormac McCarthy's celebrated career. Like All the Pretty Horses, this volume opens with a teenager's decision to slip away from his family's ranch into Mexico. In this case, the boy is Billy Parham, and the catalyst for his trip is a wolf he and his father have trapped, but that Billy finds himself unwilling to shoot. His plan is to set the animal loose down south instead.

This is a McCarthy novel, not Old Yeller, and so Billy's trek inevitably becomes more ominous than sweet. It boasts some chilling meditations on the simple ferocity McCarthy sees as necessary for all creatures who aim to continue living. But Billy is McCarthy's most loving--and therefore damageable--character, and his story has its own haunted melancholy.

Billy eventually returns to his ranch. Then, finding himself and his world changed, he returns to Mexico with his younger brother, and the book begins meandering. Though full of hypnotically barren landscapes and McCarthy's trademark western-gothic imagery (like the soldier who sucks eyes from sockets), these latter stages become tedious at times, thanks partly to the female characters, who exist solely as ghosts to haunt the men.

But that opening is glorious, and the whole book finally transcends its shortcomings to achieve a grim and poignant grandeur. --Glen Hirshberg

Book Description

Following All the Pretty Horses in Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy is a novel whose force of language is matched only by its breadth of experience and depth of thought.

In the bootheel of New Mexico hard on the frontier, Billy and Boyd Parham are just boys in the years before the Second World War, but on the cusp of unimaginable events. First comes a trespassing Indian and the dream of wolves running wild amongst the cattle lately brought onto the plain by settlers -- this when all the wisdom of trappers has disappeared along with the trappers themselves. And so Billy sets forth at the age of sixteen on an unwitting journey into the souls of boys and animals and men. Having trapped a she-wolf he would restore to the mountains of Mexico, he is long gone and returns to find everything he left behind transformed utterly in his absence. Except his kid brother, Boyd, with whom he strikes out yet again to reclaim what is theirs thus crossing into "that antique gaze from whence there could be no way back forever."

An essential novel by any measure, The Crossing is luminous and appalling, a book that touches, stops, and starts the heart and mind at once.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Customer Reviews:

Turning point.......2007-10-01

The Crossing is so vividly written that you can smell the southwestern landscape and hear the haunting romance of the cantigas. If you have travel plans to Mexico, however, the tale is enough to make you think twice about going there.

I found the Spanish challenging, although it is simple. I still needed my Spanish-English dictionary, and felt sad about missing the author's point when my literal translations failed. The long passages of Mexican metaphysics were tiring at times because I lost the metaphor. Still, the relationship between the brothers Billy and Boyd was compelling.

It's hard to imagine the starkness of their home, their clothing, food, possessions, comforts and their prose--sometimes I laughed out loud at their dialogue. It makes me want to talk in cowboy language. Billy's plans always seemed to go awry, but he toughed through all kinds of adversities with a simple "tell the truth" philosophy.

The Crossing is not about the borders between Mexico and the US, but it is about boundaries--the boundaries that are within our psychologies--how we define them and how we manage them. It is about how memory creates myth and archetypes. It is about how our impressions of the past often frame our futures.

Reading this author is a real treat--you won't be disappointed. It's such a joy to read his prose.

Too much Spanish!.......2007-09-13

I looked forward to reading this book, since I considered "The Road" great and really enjoyed the breath taking description in"All the Pretty Horses"and "Cities of the Plain." However, I am so disappointed in "The Crossing" I doubt that I will even finish reading it.
A major complaint is that there is way too much Spanish. I early on stopped even trying to decipher the meaning and just skipped those passages, which are very numerous and sometimes a paragraph or two in length. What is probably an attempt to provide local color becomes merely irritating for those who do not know Spanish. (And I've yet to figure out what Mr. McCarthy has against punctuation.)
The interminable mountains and rivers which, after all, cannot differ much from each other, get pretty tedious after a while, too. As do the stories and philosophizing from people met on the journey. After a couple hundred pages, my feeling is let's get on with it! ( It being the saga of Billy and Boyd.)

Another Great Book from McCarthy.......2007-06-20

I confess that I am consistently impressed with McCarthy. Though "The Crossing" is not as robust as "All the Pretty Horses" nor as unique a literary experience as "Blood Meridian," it remains a heck of a good book.

In this novel there is perhaps less philosophy, fewer long, rhapsodic monologues exploring the inner lives and motivations of characters. There is more action, and that action leads to no less troubling places. The monologues are replaced to a certain degree with story. Within the narrative there are several smaller narratives told by lesser characters. Though these stories lack any sort of succinct moral, they none the less contain a certain resonant truth within the world of the novel.

The larger work and the shorter stories within that work all circle the idea of truth. The novel opens with the journey of Billy Parham. He captures a pregnant wolf and then attempts to bring the wolf back across the boarder into the mountains of Mexico. In this way, the narrative begins on familiar ground. One thinks of other journey stories, one also thinks of American wilderness stories (White Fang, Call of the Wild). But soon this journey story goes awry, and the narrative we expect turns in unforeseeable directions.

One of the things I find most remarkable about this particular novel and other McCarthy work is his courage. He sets the narrative in motion. He sets a fair path and direction. He lays the groundwork, and then, once things have been set into motion, he leaves the path he has established. Like one of his characters, he strikes off into the wilderness, he crosses roadless country on horseback trusting in the things and the people he meets.

I am not sure if I am making much sense. I am thinking specifically of how this book began as a story about a boy who seeks to return a wolf, how that in itself could have been enough. But once that narrative track is established, McCarthy shifts the focus, he sets the boy off on a journey without direction or purpose, he returns the boy to a home that no longer exists, and then sets the boy off again on a journey that proves as misdirected and pointless as the first. Each time the character sets out on a track or narrative path, McCarthy soon erases the path and we are left to wander for a time in a narrative wilderness.

The narrative is given its form through theme and character. When the plot does emerge, it quickly dissolves. Nothing turns out as one would imagine. There is no foreshadowing or similar such devices. It is just character and layered narrative. Desire and thwarted desire. It seems to be exactly what I want to be reading right now.

McCarthy proves that he does humorous as well as grim - a review of "The Crossing".......2007-05-20

Well what can I say. More brilliant writing by a master AND for the first time I found myself laughing -a lot- while reading a McCarthy book. I know you might not believe me, but truly there are some extremely funny bits in this story. [My husband kept looking at me wondering if perhaps I had slipped the dusk jack for "The Crossing" onto another book. ]

And alas, lest you wonder, McCarthy was just leading me on. Up, up he took me. Wonderful story (expected). Humor (okay, not expected). But I was laughing and soaring and I was beginning to wonder if this book might be wildly different from the others. Certainly neither "The Road", nor "Blood Meridian" had me cackling: those were all grim fare. But rest assured. As high as McCarthy took me, that was where he dropped me from. It was a long plummet but finally I was back on familiar territory... heart torn out... feelings wrenched and twisted.

Five Stars. "The Crossing" is a McCarthy story that should make you laugh and then cry. Simply a wonderful tale with characters to care about. Exquisite prose.

stark, desperate country.......2007-05-09

once you are hooked on Cormac McCarthy's world of a desperate, stark west there's no going back..sort of like his characters..Billy Parham is innocent enough to believe he can set a captured wolf back in the mountains of Mexico but his journey there dispels him of that innocence and the people he meets along the way..he grows up like we all do..maybe disillusioned, a bit bitter and angry..but the lyrical prose of Cormac McCarthy makes the journey all worth it.

The Wolves in the Walls (New York Times Best Illustrated Books (Awards))

Average customer rating:

A delight for all ages
Things that go bump in the night
Pictures that talk
Oh the horror - TV watching, jam eating, video game playing wolves!
Inventive, Witty, Exciting, Perfect for ALL Ages.

The Wolves in the Walls (New York Times Best Illustrated Books (Awards))
Neil Gaiman
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Action & Adventure | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Humorous | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Comic Strips | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

General | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

General | Graphic Novels | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 038097827X
Release Date: 2003-08-05

Amazon.com

Truth be told, Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's picture book The Wolves in the Walls is terrifying. Sure, the story is fairytale-like and presented in a jaunty, casually nonsensical way, but it is absolutely the stuff of nightmares. Lucy hears wolves hustling, bustling, crinkling, and crackling in the walls of the old house where her family lives, but no one believes her. Her mother says it's mice, her brother says bats, and her father says what everyone seems to say, "If the wolves come out of the walls, it's all over." Lucy remains convinced, as is her beloved pig-puppet, and her worst fears are confirmed when the wolves actually do come out of the walls.

Up to this point, McKean's illustrations are spectacular, sinister collages awash in golden sepia tones evocative of the creepy beauty in The City of Lost Children. The wolves explode into the story in scratchy pen-and-ink, all jaws and eyes. The family flees to the cold, moonlit garden, where they ponder their future. (Her brother suggests, for example, that they escape to outer space where there's "nothing but foozles and squossucks for billions of miles.") Lucy wants to live in her own house...and she wants the pig-puppet she left behind.

Eventually she talks her family into moving back into the once-wolfish walls, where they peek out at the wolves who are watching their television and spilling popcorn on slices of toast and jam, dashing up the stairs, and wearing their clothes. When the family can't stand it anymore, they burst forth from the walls, scaring the wolves, who shout, "And when the people come out of the walls, it's all over!" The wolves flee and everything goes back to normal...until the tidy ending when Lucy hears "a noise that sounded exactly like an elephant trying not to sneeze." Adult fans of this talented pair will revel in the quirky story and its darkly gorgeous, deliciously shadowy trappings, but the young or faint of heart, beware! (Ages 9 and older) --Karin Snelson

Book Description

There are sneaking,
creeping, crumpling
noises coming from
inside the walls.

Lucy is sure there are wolves living in the walls of their house—and, as everybody says, if the wolves come out of the walls, it's all over. Her family doesn't believe her. Then one day, the wolves come out.

But it's not all over. Instead, Lucy's battle with the wolves is only just beginning.

Customer Reviews:

A delight for all ages.......2007-05-05

I don't think I really fell in love with this book until I started reading it aloud to my daughter. I remember reading it to myself first and thinking it was clever and witty and had beautiful illustrations, but when I read it for her for the first time I found myself taking on the different voices of the characters and making sounds effects and really letting the story take us both elsewhere for a while.

It's a simple story: young Lucy hears noises in the walls of her house, and she is convinced that there are wolves living there. None of her family believes her and dismiss her concerns, but she maintains her belief. When the wolves (of course they really are there!) come out of the walls, they do what any wolves would do -- chase the family away and take over the house, wearing the family's clothes and playing video games and eating toast and jam in front of the television with the volume as loud as it would go. The family, with nowhere else to go but led by clever Lucy, has to take their turn inside the walls of their house.

It is as smart, funny, and canny of a book as we might expect from Gaiman (who is often at his best when writing in the short form like this) and is accompanied perfectly by McKean's unique style of illustration, well suited to the story.

But as good as it is, believe me when I say it gets ten times better when you read it aloud for someone. Watching a child's eyes as they get engrossed in the story, as they get excited in the parts where the wolves finally appear, as they sparkle with laughter when they see what the wolves are doing, is its own brand of magic. Once they learn the story (which does not take long, Gaiman makes it easy for them), you'll find them reading parts of it with you, like the repeated statement about what happens when the wolves come out of the walls: "It's All Over!"

My youngest daughter now requests that I read 'The Wolves in the Walls' to her nightly, and if that doesn't tell you this is a great book for kids, nothing else will. And, because I love it too and I love reading it to her, I do.

This is a very, very special book to us.

Things that go bump in the night.......2007-02-04

The Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Dave McKean is great. What a wonderful little book! The Wolves in the Walls is about what may be behind those things that go bump in the night. It's the story of a young girl named Lucy who hears wolves in the walls. Of course, her parents don't believe her until the wolves come out, and then all hell breaks loose. This is a great book for children who are afraid of night time noises. It shows that the source of the noises may be just as scared of you as you are of them. It's beautifull illustrated by Dave McKean. Like The Day I Swapped my Dad for Two Goldfish, The Wolves in the Walls can easily be mistaken for an art book. I don't think there's a better Writer/Artist duo than Gaiman and McKean. If you haven't already read this one, do yourself a favor and give it a read. There was a play put on not too long ago that was based on this book and unfortunately I didn't get to see it as it didn't come anywhere near New Orleans. I would've really enjoyed that.

Pictures that talk.......2007-01-12

Gaiman-McKean, superb combination as usual.
Honestly, I don't read picture books, but I bought this cute book
to my girlfriend, (as a present for a New Year) because she is also an illustrator and she makes that kind of stuff. (She liked it).
But let's get back to the book.
Mr. McKean's artwork is fascinating as always.
Nice mix of photos, paintings and drawings.
Storyline is crazy, like some short trip into dreamworld.
I won't describe it ofcourse, you can get it from the net.
I liked the balance between the light and the dark part of book.
The light part is when everything was still allright, (before the wolves came), and the dark part is afterwards.
McKean gives us a nice light colours in the beginning, and later, takes us to the night and chills of this interesting short story.
I didn't read much stuff by Mr. Gaiman, (I prefer King, Barker etc) except those Sandman series, and other comix and graphic novels, that I liked also, but never his books and his picture books.
This is first pic book I saw, and I must say that it's great, really.
As an graphic novels author and comics teacher I prefer that kind of stuff, but I'll say to you, give it a try, it's OK for the collection,if you like the work of Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman.
But remember, it's for children!

Oh the horror - TV watching, jam eating, video game playing wolves!.......2006-09-10

This book is so comical I don't see how anyone could really find it disturbing. Sure, the wolves come out of the walls and the family decides to leave but what silly party animals these wolves are. And of course we find that the wolves are actually terrified of the humans as in "when the humans come out of the walls it is all over" The family gets their home back with just some humorous "losses" (a wolf has beat brother's high score on his video game) and a bit of cleaning up to do. The ending has been done again and again and I took it more as a satire of typical children's picture books rather than Mr. Gaiman and Mr. McKean wanting to start an "in the walls" franchise. I think this book would be perfect to use with fifth grade/middle school kids to teach some storywriting techniques and I mourn that picture books are not more often with older students. The illustrations are clever and unique. Yes, in one scene the wolves have red jam on their mouths that could be blood but the text makes it very clear this is all in fun and the red stuff is JAM! This is a fun book and not to be taken seriously.

Inventive, Witty, Exciting, Perfect for ALL Ages........2006-09-10

Lucy believes that there are wolves in her house's walls. She tells her mother, and she says it must be mice. She informs her father of her worry, and he says it must be rats. She goes to her brother, and he says it is bats. Still, Lucy is not assured. ''When the wolves come out of the walls", they tell her ''it will all be over''.

Of course, the wolves DO come out of the walls, and the family is forced to move outside. Any imaginative child will get the humor of the story and will not be scared. The worst things the wolves do are play the tuba and spill jam on the floor. Dave McKean's scratchy illustrations are combined with real photographs to create a beautiful affect. Great fun for readers of all ages.

Carmine: A Little More Red (New York Times Best Illustrated Books (Awards))

Average customer rating:

GREAT RETELLING
Excellent children's book!
99 red balloons floating in a summer sky
"Don't dilly dally. Go directly to Granny's."

Carmine: A Little More Red (New York Times Best Illustrated Books (Awards))
Melissa Sweet
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0618387943

Book Description

And, as Carmine takes off on her bicycle with Rufus, that is just what she intends to do. But Carmine is a dreamy painter, always in search of capturing just the right hue in her drawings, and this drawingthe one she begins in a lovely forest clearing just off the path to Granny'smust be her best yet. Here is a new, lively retelling of a timeless tale with enough twists and turns to keep readers guessing until the very end.

Customer Reviews:

GREAT RETELLING.......2007-04-12

Fun having the same story brought up to date and a terrific way to show how things change.

Excellent children's book!.......2007-01-06

I thoroughly enjoyed reading "Carmine:A Little More Red"; it is a creative interpretation of a classic. The illustrations are beautiful!! While the vocabulary was too advanced for my 3- and 4-year old children to grasp, the pictures held their attention and I am sure that it will be a treasured book for years to come.

99 red balloons floating in a summer sky.......2006-03-01

Little Red Riding Hood. There is probably more psychological baggage and scintillating undertones associated with this little tale than any other story in the Grimm repertoire. Accordingly, with every year more and more alternate versions and retellings hit the market full force. From James Marshall's classic version to Ed Young's stylized Chinese retelling ("Lon Po Po", in case you're interested), there are more little girls in red hoods out there than you can shake a fist at. "Carmine" is one of the most recent additions to the fold, and it makes for a lovely little read. Bringing together such disparate elements as the alphabet, gradations in color, a heightened sense of tension, and even a recipe at its conclusion, "Carmine" is not the most accessible of Little Red tales out there, but it's certainly one of the most pleasant to thumb through. You're not going to get the straight dope on Little Red with this version, but for the modern kid Sweet's interpretation of the events involving one girl in a hood, one granny, and one wolf makes for a perfectly nice and perfectly new story of its own.

Each plot twist in this book begins with a letter of the alphabet. So the first step in the story comes with the word "Alphabet". Carmine loved going over to her granny's for a little alphabet soup. "Beware". There was a wolf about and Carmine was warned to go straight to granny's and not to dilly-dally. Unfortunately, Carmine is a world class dilly-dallier. There are few dallys she hasn't dillied (or, alternately, dillies she hasn't dallied). Since Carmine is a fan of painting she spots some poppies on her route and decides that granny deserves a picture of them. "It may seem farfetched to think that any painting can be improved by adding a little more red, but Carmine believes it to be true". Unfortunately, the wolf is most certainly about. After a quick conversation with Carmine's terror stricken dog, it heads straight for granny's and catches her unawares. Fortunately for everyone involved, the soup bones by granny's pot strike the carnivore as more enticing than her old creaky ones. Carmine learns her lesson, granny loves her painting, and a fine bowls of alphabet soup are had by all.

The essential conceit of beginning each new thought with a letter of the alphabet is all well and good but there isn't much rhyme or reason to Sweet's choices. All the same, I was a little amazed at how effectively the author cranks up the suspense when the wolf has visited granny and her cry for help has been foreshortened. Adults familiar with the original granny-in-the-belly-of-the-beast versions of this tale will be as relieved as their offspring to learn of her safety. The story itself does, I should add, make the reader think for a moment that the wolf has returned home to its young with its arms full of granny's bones. But however bleak that image, it is quickly remedied by a simple extraction of the old lady from her own closet.

Prior to reading "Carmine", my only other association with Melissa Sweet came with her lovely illustration work done on Catherine Thimmesh's fabulous, "The Sky's the Limit". In that book Sweet conjured up a very satisfying selection of mixed media. "Carmine", similarly, draws upon a variety of different elements. Open the book up and immediately the first thing you see is a collection of color swatches. Each shade of red is spelled out with alphabet soup letters and they have everything from Sienna and Vermillion to Crimson and Magenta. The rest of the book is a combination of cartoon and illustration. Sweet makes continual oblique references to fairy tales and nursery rhymes throughout the story too. For example, the wolf creeps by Little Boy Blue asleep on a haystack and The Three Little Pigs make a brief appearance in a small cartoon panel. What could have come across as haphazard or messy in the hands of another artist merely takes on a rather vibrant and exciting feel under Sweet's direction.

The version of this story that "Carmine" seems the closest to (at least in spirit) would probably be Lisa Campbell Ernst's, "Little Red Riding Hood: A Newfangled Prairie Tale". Both books feature the heroine on a bike on the cover. Both are updated retellings and both end happily for the wolves involved. Both even have recipes for the foods mentioned (muffins in Ernst's, alphabet soup in Sweet's). But while "Carmine" is a far more stylized retelling with a very real sense of tension to it, Ernst's tale makes for a much better readaloud, especially when you take into consideration its homey southern drawl. All the same, "Carmine: A Little More Red" is a lovely modern take on a old story and one that I'm sure many a child (particularly those enamored of the many shades of rouge) will find themselves enjoying.

"Don't dilly dally. Go directly to Granny's.".......2005-10-09

Little Red Riding Hood is reincarnated in this imaginative retelling of a favorite tale, Carmine taught to read by a beloved granny who uses alphabet soup to instruct the child. She started with a spoonful of letters and now Carmine can read a whole bowl. Whenever Granny makes a fresh pot of soup, like today, Carmine is invited for lunch. Before she leaves, Carmine sorts through her clutter for anything she might need on her journey, pencils, paper and paint. Accompanied by her beloved dog, Rufus, Carmine has been known to dilly dally on the way to Granny's house, although she has been warned by her mother that the route is fraught with danger. This time a lurking wolf spots the child, who has stopped to paint a picture for her grandmother, distracted by nature's abundant beauty. Racing ahead... well, you know this story. Luckily for Carmine, her Granny doesn't meet the same fate as the original grandmother, this one hiding in the closet as the hungry wolf gathers an armful of soup bones to take home to his pups. Happily reunited, Carmine, Granny and Rufus sip their soup while admiring Carmine's latest work of art.

The artwork in this book is vivid and imaginative, combined with a layout that introduces new vocabulary words used in context with the illustrations. This artist thinks outside the box, using both visual images and language to inspire young readers, cartoon balloons filled with Carmine and the Wolf's dialog as they confront their situations. Words like pluck, dawdle, mimic and nincompoop add alliterative rhythms, balanced with lively drawings, a bright palette accented with every shade of red: scarlet, carmine and fuscia. A multi-level reading experience, Carmine is a fabulous addition to a child's library, a visual and verbal feast as exuberant as its young heroine. Luan Gaines/ 2005.

Wolves and Honey: A Hidden History of the Natural World

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The first-person blend of memoir and observational piece is wonderfully rich in detail and insight
Touching the truth
Wolves is a Honey

Wolves and Honey: A Hidden History of the Natural World
Susan Brind Morrow
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Susan Brind Morrow brings her singular sensibility as a classicist and linguist to this strikingly original reflection on the fine but resilient threads that bind humans to the natural world. Anchored in the emblematic experiences of a trapper and a beekeeper, Wolves and Honey explores the implications of their very different relationships to the natural world, while illuminating Morrow's own poignant experience of the lives and tragic deaths of these men who deeply influenced her. Ultimately for Morrow these two the tracker and trapper of wolves, the keeper of bees are a touchstone for a memoir of the land itself, the rich soil of the Finger Lakes region in upstate New York. From the ancient myth of the Tree of Life to the mysterious reappearance of wolves in the New York wilderness, from the inner life of the word "nectar," whose Greek root ("that which overcomes death") reveals our most fundamental experience of wonder, to the surprising links between the physics of light and the chemistry of sweetness, Morrow's richly evocative writing traces startling historical, scientific, and metaphorical resonances. Wolves and Honey, attuned to the connections among various realms of culture and nature, time and language, jolts us into thinking anew about our sometimes neglected but always profound relationship to the natural world.

Customer Reviews:

The first-person blend of memoir and observational piece is wonderfully rich in detail and insight.......2006-05-26

Two of author Morrow's best friends are a trapper and a beekeeper: together the tree reflect on the nature of the Finger Lakes region of upper New York State in WOLVES AND HONEY: A HIDDEN HISTORY OF THE NATURAL WORLD. The juxtaposition of two very different, eccentric personalities in Morrow's friends reflect the variations of the land and wildlife they're involved with in Morrow's reflection of man and nature. The first-person blend of memoir and observational piece is wonderfully rich in detail and insight.

Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch

Touching the truth.......2004-09-10

Her words like skipping stones,
Seeing afar from the air,
Splashing down again and again
In truth's lake.

Wolves is a Honey.......2004-07-30

Flora and fauna aren't my strong points. But after reading Morrow's new book, I feel I can hold my own on bees, the Finger Lakes, apples, trees and yes, wolves. The book is a meditation and needs to be read slowly so that the reader doesn't miss the subtleties of her language and thought. The interconnections between the natural world of upstate New York and its political, social and religious worlds is fascinating. In the book's first pages Morrow transported this lifelong city dweller to upstate New York with such ease and pleasure that I didn't want to return. It is the perfect read for a quiet afternoon in a hammock.

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Women Who Run with the Wolves
Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Manufacturer: Rider & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | New Age | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 071267134X

Wolves and Human Communities: Biology, Politics, and Ethics

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Thought provoking
Informative commentary by leading contributors and experts

Wolves and Human Communities: Biology, Politics, and Ethics

Manufacturer: Island Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Animal Rights | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Conservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 155963829X

Book Description

Like wolf restoration activities in the West, the proposal to reintroduce wolves into the Adirondacks has generated intense public debate. The idea of returning top predators to settled landscapes raises complicated questions on issues ranging from property rights to wildlife management to obligations to present and future generations.

Wolves and Human Communities brings together leading thinkers and writers from diverse fields-including Timothy Clark, Daniel Kemmis, L. David Mech, Mary Midgley, Ernest Partridge, Steward T.A. Pickett, Joseph Sax, Rodger Schlickeisen, and others-to address the complex ethical, biological, legal, and political concerns surrounding wolf reintroduction. Contributors specifically explore the social, cultural, and ecological values that come into play in the debate, as they examine:

the views of stakeholders in the Adirondack decision
historical trends in public perception of restoration
the legal and policy context for species preservation, and the challenges to the current system of property law
biological and political lessons learned from Yellowstone, Isle Royale, and the Great Lakes states
the meaning of wildness, both in ourselves and the wolf

The final chapter by Niles Eldredge takes the point of view of evolutionary time and ecological scale, challenging us to develop a new consciousness regarding our position in the natural world.

Wolves and Human Communities offers a thought-provoking examination of interactions between human and wild communities, and represents an important contribution to debates over species reintroduction for policymakers, researchers, ecologists, sociologists, lawyers, ethicists, philosophers, and local residents.

Customer Reviews:

Thought provoking.......2003-04-20

An excellent book for those interested not only in wolf conservation, but for those interested in the ongoing debate over the role of humans in the natural community. The various authors each bring in uniqe perspectives and ideas about what should and should not be human responsibilites towards shaping the ecosystems we live in. I was impressed with the great variety of opinions and ideas that are in this book regarding wolf conservation. This book definitely made me think about my ethical, social, and political values and will no doubt continue to help shape these values in the future when I re-read the essays in here.

Informative commentary by leading contributors and experts.......2001-05-23

Wolves And Human Communities: Biology, Politics, And Ethics is a compendium of informative commentary by leading contributors and experts in the field of wolf restoration activities in the American west. These essays address complex ethical, biological, legal, and political concerns surrounding wolf reintroduction. The contributors specifically comment on the social, cultural, and ecological values that are a part of the on-going national debate. Specially addressed are the views of stakeholders in the Adirondack decision; historical trends in public perception of wolf restoration; the legal and policy context for species preservation; biological and political lessons gleaned from the Yellowstone, Isle Royal, and Great Lakes states wolf restoration experiments; and the meaning of wilderness in both humans the wolves. Wolves And Human Communities is a seminal, significant, highly recommended contribution that will be greatly appreciated by environmental and animal rights activists, ecologists, as well as wolf population and habitat restorationists.

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Political, social and natural history blend

The New Wolves
Rick Bass
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1585742651

Book Description

On the Mexican wolves of the Southwest.

Customer Reviews:

Political, social and natural history blend.......2001-05-28

Rick Bass' New Wolves (1-58574-265-1, $14.95) charts the return of the Mexican Wolf to the American Southwest and the controversies surrounding its preservation. Political, social and natural history blend in essays which survey the wolves and provide first-person observations. A recommended pick for any who love animals and natural history.

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The Best Place
Susan Meddaugh
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Picture Books | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0618448829

Book Description

Wolf thinks his porch is the best place in the world until one day his friend Bird says, "How do you know? You've never been anyplace else." This question inspires the wolf to sell his house and travel the world. Eventually his journey brings him back home, but he is unable to get his house back. Upset, he behaves very badly, and even his good intentions get him into trouble. But in the end he understands that sometimes when you can't get what you want, you find something even better.

The Wolf in the Southwest: The Making of an Endangered Species

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The Wolf in the Southwest: The Making of an Endangered Species

Manufacturer: Univ of Arizona Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Animal Care & Pets | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Endangered Species | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
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Vanishing Lobo: The Mexican Wolf and the Southwest

ASIN: 0816507961

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