Raised
by Wolves
Jennifer
Lynn Barnes
ISBN: 978-1606840597
Edgemont,
2010
Plot
Summary: When
15-year-old Bryn was four she saw her parents brutally murdered by a rogue
werewolf. Alone, she was adopted by Callum, the alpha of the pack of werewolves
that saved her from certain death. She’s been raised by the pack ever since and
doesn’t really fit in with ordinary everyday human life. For the first time,
however, the pack is hiding a big secret from her and when Bryn goes against
Callum’s wishes and hunts down the secret she is put face to face with Chase—a
17-year-old boy who survived a werewolf attack and is now actually going to
change into a werewolf. This is huge news for the pack because no one has
survived a werewolf attack and lived to change themselves in years. Bryn fells
a connection to Chase and wants to be involved in his treatment as the pack
attempts to determine if he will be stable when he turns and if they can break
the mental connection he has with his attacker/maker. Following strict rules
Callum puts in place, Bryn is allowed to interact with Chase. However, when one
meeting accidentally puts the two of them too close together, Bryn ends up
rewriting Chase’s pack bound with her maker and ties him to herself instead of
Callum’s pack. In doing so, she unwittingly breaks pack law and needs to be
punished. Callum, unable to do it himself, makes Bryn’s best friend’s mother
dole out the punishment—a beating that nearly causes her to die. Barely
frazzled, she recovers and learns from Chase that the werewolf that changed him
is the same—supposedly dead—wolf that killed her family. She sets out to find
the rogue wolf with the intent to kill him even if her pack for some reason has
let him live for so long. With the help of Chase and her two friends, Devon and
Leah, she discovers the horrible truth about the wolf, Wilson, and why his life is more valued than
his death among the wolf packs. Bryn doesn’t care though as she and her friends
set out to stop the rouge maniac before he kills again even if it will bring
about the vengeance of her pack.
Critical
Evaluation:
Finally a paranormal book for teens that is truly a paranormal story with
little real romance (or a love triangle) anywhere to be seen! Bryn is a strong
female leader. She may be a human among wolves but she is just as strong, if
not stronger, in some ways than her fellow pack members. She realizes that she
has a special “knack”—she is resilient and is a survivor and that makes her stronger
than most humans. She is a character that stands up for what she believes in
and fights Wilson
with a very unique perspective all her own. She has all the hallmarks of being
a strong leader herself. When she “claims” Chase it isn’t in an “I now own you”
type of way that we see among many relationships in teen paranormal stories but
more of a mutual connection of respect that ties them together. Their
connection truly is a connection. “Connection” isn’t used as just another way
of saying lust—in fact they never even kiss in the book. So while there is some
love on a certain level, the story is really about a girl standing up for what
she believes in and fights to be a leader. It is a refreshing paranormal tale
and I highly recommend it. One of my favorite series of the year that I have
read.
Reader's
Annotation:
Ever since her parents were brutally killed, Bryn has been raised a human among
a werewolf pack. Her feeling of security
goes out the window when a boy her age, Chase, is attacked by a rabid were and,
instead of dying from his wounds, turns—a very, very rare occurrence. Thing get
more upsetting when she is lead to believe that the rabid is the man who killed
her family.
Author
Information:
Jennifer Lynn Barnes was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
She has been, in turn, a competitive cheerleader, a volleyball player, a
dancer, a debutante, a primate cognition researcher, a teen model, a comic book
geek, and a lemur aficionado. She's been writing for as long as she can
remember, finished her first full book (which she now refers to as a
"practice book" and which none of you will ever see) when she was
still in high school, and then wrote Golden
the summer after her freshman year in college, when she was nineteen. Barnes
graduated high school in 2002 and from Yale University
with a degree in cognitive science in 2006. She was awarded a Fulbright to do
post-graduate work at Cambridge,
and then returned to the states, where she is hard at work on her PhD (Barnes, 2012).
Genre: Fantasy, Horror
Curriculum
Ties: N/A
Booktalking
Ideas: Appeal
to fans of Buffy and the like (for strong female characters). Appeal to the
non-romantic paranormal fans with this action packed story.
Reading
Level/Interest Age:
15+
Challenge
Issues: Language,
violence
Challenge
Defense: If
this book were challenged, I would make sure the library has a Challenge
Defense File ready for such a situation. Inside the Challenge Defense File,
librarians and the public could find:
·
A
copy of the American Library Association’s Library
Bill of Rights. (Can be found and printed from ALA’s website at http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill)
·
A
copy of the American Library Association’s Freedom to Read Statement (Can be
found and printed from ALA’s
website at http://www.ala.org/offices/oif/statementspols/ftrstatement/freedomreadstatement)
·
A
copy of the library’s own selection policy (my library, the La Vista Public
Library, has a policy but it is not online so I can’t link to it as an
example).
·
A
copy of the library’s citizen’s complaint/reconsideration form (my library, the
La Vista Public Library’s, form is called the City of La Vista Service Request form).
·
Copies
of reviews—both good and bad—from reputable library and publishing services to
justify why a book was selected for inclusion in the collection. These include
not only reviews from such journals as School
Library Journal, VOYA, Horn Book, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist, but also any mention of books
on YALSA lists and other copies of articles about any awards or nominations
such books may have received.
·
Include
a short rationale file for other coworkers so if the librarian in charge of
selecting materials is not available when a challenge occurs the other staff
members have some information to go by (the rational would include such
information as a short summary, what could be challenged, reviews, awards and
nominations, etc.)
·
Include
for staff members a copy of “Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to
Library Materials,” a document written by the American Library Association.
Make sure that staff reviews this document periodically so they are prepared
and know how to face such situations. (Can be found and printed from ALA’s website at http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips)
Reason
for Inclusion: One of the few paranormal fantasy series out
there that is not all about a love triangle. This is more about character and
world building instead of a human girl getting it on with a supernatural
creature. Recommend purchase of the entire trilogy—Taken by Storm and Trial by
Fire.
References:
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