Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Nature Storybooks

Walk with a Wolf with Audio: Read, Listen, & Wonder

Rate this book
Now in paperback! Young readers will welcome this exciting opportunity to be a part of the pack. (Ages 5-8)

Introducing READ, LISTEN, & WONDER!

Each paperback title in the series ncludes a CD that
* an engaging read-aloud with sound effects
* a read-along opportunity guided by prompts
* a segment focusing on fascinating facts

Walk with a wolf . . . as she hunts alone, howls to her pack, and greets her cubs and mate. Hunt with the pack as it follows the scent of a bull moose, crouching and charging. Learn all about these lords of the far north, who have been hunted by man nearly to extinction. With evocative watercolors by Sarah Fox-Davies, Walk with a Wolf is as full of beauty and drama as it is of facts about this mysterious and often maligned creature.

This vibrant book-and-CD series brings the best of our Read and Wonder nature stories to life.
Back matter includes an index.

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

5 people are currently reading
116 people want to read

About the author

Janni Howker

20 books12 followers
Janni Howker is a British author who has written several award-winning adult and children's books; she has also adapted her work for the screen. Howker has worked across the UK running creative writing workshops for adults and children, and is involved in several arts development programmes.

She lives in the north of England, where many of her books are set: most notably Martin Farrell, which tells the tale of a boy caught in the midst of the bloody feuds of the Border Reivers.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
34 (30%)
4 stars
39 (34%)
3 stars
27 (23%)
2 stars
10 (8%)
1 star
3 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
Profile Image for Hilary .
2,294 reviews483 followers
February 20, 2019
This story follows a pack of wolves through their everyday life. The foreword highlights the sad fact that wolves have been hunted and killed in most places where they used to inhabit and now mainly inhabit the far North. This story is set in the Yukon. The illustrations are beautiful and very life like. We enjoyed the story and the factual information on each page. As this story is true to life sensitive readers might want to avoid the pages where the wolf pack hunts and kills an elderly moose.
3 reviews
October 31, 2011
Name of Book: Walk with a Wolf
Author: Janni Hawker

This book highlights the extinction of wolves in Britain over the last two hundred years through simple language and beautifully illustrated images. It shows the real lives of wolves, their habitats and their fight for survival. The book identifies their skills for hunting, tales of folklore and their methods of survival through the promotion of co-operation in packs. It shows children the importance of teamwork within the animal kingdom in order to survive. The book introduces the impact of extinction and how it can occur which promotes awareness for children.
I found this book to be an excellent informative learning tool for children within key stage one and two. It informs children of the importance of learning about the animals that live and have lived in their country. The book expresses the elements of wolf’s lives and mannerisms, which informs children’s knowledge and awareness.
Profile Image for Halina Hetman.
1,209 reviews22 followers
October 11, 2023
Проста і реалістично ілюстрована історія з життя вовків в дикій природі. Обережно, процес поїдання оленя намальований на сторінці.
Profile Image for Cat Strawberry.
838 reviews22 followers
April 17, 2018
This is a beautiful book with some truly stunning illustrations. The book is shorter than A4 in height but wider and is filled with thick glossy pages of some beautiful and colourful illustrations and text. The story is all about the life of a wolf, the various things wolves do to and is told in a wonderful way. Although the book is part of the Nature Storybooks collection it is a non-fiction book with a story element that makes it easy to tell children the various things about wolf life.

The book begins by asking us to ‘walk with a wolf’ and briefly describes her habitat and what she looks like before giving us more insight into the life she lives. It explains many things that wolves do such as why they howl, how they hunt, how they rest and sleep. Each page is filled with illustrations and text which is simple to understand but something about this particular book is different to others I’ve read and there’s a beautiful way certain lines are written, starting off new sections with phrases like ‘run with a wolf, charge with a wolf’ and ‘rest with a wolf’. It really engages you and makes want to read on.

The illustrations are some of the most realistic and beautiful I’ve seen! The way the wolves coats look is especially amazing with individual hairs and even eyelashes in some close up images being visible. The pictures not only show well what is happening in the story but it’s also mesmerising and magical to just look at some of these and I think many children, especially those with an interest in animals, will really love looking back at this again and again for the pictures alone.

The very fist page of the book, before the actual ‘story’ begins, has a short description of how wolves used to roam in many countries but are now only found in a few, as well as telling us the setting for this particular tale. The back page has a notes for teachers and notes for parents sections with information on how to use the book. The book actually supports Key Stages 1-2 in Science and English making this a great read for both at home and in the classroom.

There’s something just so beautiful and magical about this book and given the fact that so many people see wolves as only dangerous creatures to be feared I think many kids would benefit from reading this as it really does make you feel respect for these animals, and you may even grow to love them, especially with such beautiful illustrations.
-Thanks to Walker Books for a free copy.
6 reviews
April 22, 2020
This book introduces children to the life of wolves via a story set in the Yukon Territory of Canada. We follow one wolf as she explores her environment before rejoining her pack and going hunting. The descriptive language used is clear, precise, and poetic, features which combine beautifully with the delicate illustrations, the two combining to create an atmosphere redolent of the snow covered landscape which the wolves inhabit. The sentences are often short, which gives the book a calm rhythm, although this device is also used to dramatic effect.

The narrative text is accompanied by another, factual text in a different font which elaborates upon subjects touched on in the story. A short index enables children to easily find information about wolves and their behaviour, a helpful addition which provides a gentle introduction to the use of an important feature of non-fiction books.

The layout of the book is very well organised: text and illustrations has been carefully considered and equal status has been accorded to both, making each double page spread aesthetically pleasing and easy to read. The large format, simple use of language, and attractive illustrations make this a excellent book to use and explore during a shared reading lesson. The text would provide a good model for children engaged in the writing of both narrative descriptive passages or factual reports. Considering that the domestic dog is descended from the wolf, a teacher might explore with a class the question of how wolves both differ from and resemble dogs. Lessons could also be devoted to exploring a region of the world which wolves inhabit, thus providing a chance to learn about the geology and conditions of the region, other animals which live there, and the food chain. All, or a few, of these subjects could be incorporated into a wall display or a written report. The eradication of wolves from large areas of Europe, the reasons for this, and their controversial recent reintroduction to parts, might form the basis of a debate in which children could explore the positive and negative aspects of such an intervention.
Profile Image for Becs.
1,567 reviews52 followers
January 3, 2018
An interesting picture book about a day in the life of a wolf pack - an important book really for educating young people, particularly considering the rapid decline in wolf numbers. Wouldn't it be lovely to think that spreading a message to our children about animals like the wolf could help to save them instead of them believing and being scared of folklore such as the Big Bad Wolf.

This is mostly intended as an educational piece. It showcases, through almost life-like illustrations, how a wolf pack hunts together, when they have their cubs, which order they might eat their kills and where they live to shelter from the cold. The hunting aspect is perhaps the only element which might be a little off-putting for a more sensitive reader as there is one image of a moose a pack of wolves have killed, although the illustration is not at all graphic.

It would have been great to have some sort of fact sheet about the wolves perhaps including at the end for little readers wanting to know more than the small facts the story included; I did feel there could have been more facts woven in a little better when compared to some of the other books in the "Nature Storybooks" which included more information than this one did.

Otherwise, a really great introduction to wolves for small children and a great message to pass along.

ARC provided free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
8 reviews
Read
January 27, 2021
A lovely factual book about wolves. Walk with a wolf . . . as she hunts alone, howls to her pack, and greets her cubs and mate. The story follows the pack as it follows the scent of a moose, crouching and charging. An enlightening book that is brought to life. Enjoyable to read to the class at the end of the day.
Profile Image for Evelyn.
448 reviews14 followers
June 5, 2017
I enjoyed reading the facts about wolves, and the art work enhanced the text.
15 reviews
June 11, 2023
The pictures are very nice. You feel calm while reading it.
Profile Image for Tola.
102 reviews
August 13, 2023
Znalazłam podczas remontu ksiazka dla dzieci ofc króciutka, niezbyt wiele informacji ale piekne ilustracje w moim mniemaniu
Profile Image for Ella Simms.
9 reviews1 follower
June 19, 2022
Picture Book Extended Entry.

"Walk with a wolf in the cold air before sunrise..."

Walk with a wolf is a lovely, illustrative text that takes you on a journey with a female wolf and her family.
The text makes use of a variety of descriptive, illustrative language and a variety of techniques to tell the story. In italics on a selection of pages are informative facts about wolves, their families, their lives etc, interwoven with the story and illustrations.
In my opinion this enhances the readers experience; by providing substantiated facts alongside the story, it allows the reader to feel more emersed.
The illustrations work alongside the text beautifully to create a frozen wonderland, the muted colours and high level of realism, almost make you forget you are reading a story at all. The main character of the wolf the reader is following could be more clearly identifiable, however the text makes up for this.
In order to read this text and get the full benefit, readers need to understand the difference between fiction and fact, although the use of italics does help to identify this, to a younger reader this could be confusing. The reader may also benefit from having some interest in wolves/knowledge about wolves as the book revolves around this one subject only.
In walk with a wolf, the images are displayed often running/moving/walking from the left hand side of the page to the right, this gives the impression the wolf is constantly moving onwards, which the text supports. The vast open white background and muted colour pallet create a sense of being with the wolf in the snowy landscape that is described- In my opinion this is an intentional choice.

I used this book in a sequence of lessons to aid teaching a Yr 2 class the difference between fact and fiction within texts. We went on to write non-chronological reports about Wolves.
There are many teaching opportunities when using this picture book.

English-
Descriptive writing, story planning, non-chronological reports, diary entries.

Humanities-
Researching geographical location of wolves.

Science
Habitat research, animal research, adaptations, designing informative posters/leaflets, trip to visit wolves at a zoo and learn more.

Art
Observational drawing of wolves, designing a winter scene using mixed media, diorama of habitat.


Profile Image for Rosa Cline.
3,328 reviews44 followers
November 7, 2016
This is a good book to teach about wolves and the way they live and how they are endangered. In the back of the book is an index of extra words to look back up to help teach a little more about them. There is the original story to follow then on some of the pages it has some extra paragraphs of extra information on wolves. I bought this for my daughter when she was a preteen and very interested in wolves and helping 'save' them. I am now reading it to my granddaughter, she seemed to enjoy it. Warning though...for small children there is a part where the pack bring down an injured moose to eat. It's not graphic but could be confusing for small children to understand why they chased the injured animal, and what happened to it since the next page says they were no longer hungry. So you may have to explain that to them but it was written very nicely. This book I would suggest for just casual reading but also it could be used as a learning lesson.
Profile Image for Linda.
279 reviews
December 21, 2014
This is my new mentor text I use in my classroom. This book is exciting, descriptive, and has amazing sentence structure. It can be used for so many lessons. The book is structured in a way that can be considered cyclical, although if you wanted to just focus on the sequence structure explicit in the book, that works too. I've used it to introduce reading closely ( the new buzz in education) but the book is truly wonderful. I want to keep it all to myself, but want to share it with the world because it's so awesome.
PS- there's a CD for listening too!
Profile Image for SBC.
1,467 reviews
September 24, 2024
This beautifully illustrated picture book about wolves was shortlisted for the Kurt Maschler Award and was Highly Commended for the Times Educational Supplement Junior Information Book Award. Written by Janni Howker and illustrated by Sarah Fox-Davies.

The story starts by encouraging the reader to walk with a wolf as she wanders the icy landscape. The writing is poetic, but interspersed by fact bytes in a different font (though informative, I found these distracting from the main storyline).
Profile Image for Sarah.
62 reviews
August 10, 2016
This book is fantastic! The illustrations are so realistic, and I love how the story is also realistic and isn't about an unrealistic Big Bad Wolf. I also thought that having some wolf facts along with the story was fantastic, as the reader can make connections that the story matches up with the facts and is therefore a realistic depiction of wolves.
1,076 reviews21 followers
December 9, 2011
One of the great series of Nature Storybooks from Walker Books, which comes with a CD. Beautiful illustrations and words written with obvious fondness for wolves. Moving.
Profile Image for The Docta.
528 reviews2 followers
July 3, 2016
Educational and entertaining for young reader. Wonderful illustration; beautiful.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.