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Winter is here, and coyotes Pica and Scruff are having trouble finding enough food to survive. Their only option may be to steal food from humans, which Scruff thinks is a necessary risk, while Pica thinks it's too dangerous. After they get into a bitter fight, the unthinkable happens: Pica gets locked into a delivery truck and driven far away from the city, into the land of the wolves.
When Pica disappears and doesn't return for weeks, Scruff is devastated. He doesn't know if the fight drove her away or if something happened to her. Not knowing what else to do, he eventually moves on and meets a new pack. However, these new friends rely heavily on human food, and he knows that by joining them he's playing a dangerous game.
Pica, alone in the wilderness, must call on all of her strength and courage to survive in this new landscape. She has to get back to Scruff before it's too late. The clock is ticking, and leg traps, wolves, and a giant icy mountain range stand between Pica and her home.
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Creators
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Series
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Publisher
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Release date
September 21, 2021 -
Formats
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781459748279
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781459748279
- File size: 1744 KB
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Languages
- English
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Levels
- Lexile® Measure: 770
- Text Difficulty: 3-4
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Reviews
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September 1, 2021
Two coyotes separated by miles and mountains struggle to reunite and survive in a human world. Having done her homework on wild and urban coyotes, as the informative afterword shows, Gilchrist continues the tale begun in Street Shadows (2019). Though furious with her friend Scruff over the risks he takes stealing food from the local humans, Pica overcomes her better judgment to sneak aboard a bread truck--which transports her to a wilder locale where only the intervention of a friendly local pack saves her from starvation, hostile wolves, and--after her foot is caught in a trap--an agonizing death. Months of healing later, she resolutely sets out to return to her beloved buddy. Meanwhile, though devastated by Pica's sudden disappearance, Scruff makes shift to survive...first by joining a neighboring band of coyotes that is fed (misguidedly, as the author makes clear) by humans and then, when two of his new mates are lured out of hiding to be shot, reluctantly teaming up with the opener's hard-bitten loner Jagger. The informal dialogue lightens the overall tone, but the plot's hazards, the characters' instinctive behaviors, and the often tragic picture of day-to-day existence maintain an animal's-eye view. Still, the anthropomorphism is appealingly unforced, and the story concludes on a rising up note. Closer to Incredible Journey than The Call of the Wild; will elicit pleased howls from young pups. (Adventure. 9-12)COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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