Lessons from the Wolverine

A journey into a spiritual landscape In this story of spiritual adventure from the author and illustrator of Crow and Weasel, a young man journeys through the arctic wilderness to find a family of wolverine and learn more about their mysterious power. At the time the story opens the narrator is working as an airplane mechanic in northeast Alaska. Long sensitive to wild animals, he feels drawn to wolverines through his dreams. One day his work takes him to the riverside village of Eedaqna, where he meets an older man who is impressed by his integrity and his desire to make a connection with wolverines. The villager guides him into the Ruby Mountains to Caribou Caught by the Head Creek, a place where wolverines have a spiritual stronghold. Here the young man enters the dream landscape of two wolverine, and receives from them the first lessons he will use to shape his adult life. Barry Lopez's story, infused with gentle magic, shows how one man comes to experience the wondrous power of animals and to understand his place in the natural world in a new way. Tom Pohrt's watercolor illustrations add vivid dimension to the story, bringing to life the land, people, and animals the young man encounters on his journey. Lessons from the Wolverine depicts with stunning detail the texture and nuance of discovery and suggests the importance of a wisdom other than our own. "These spare narrations carry surprising weight.... Lopez leaves all the right things unsaid, and the silence resonates". -- Time, on Field Notes "Exquisite pictures ... the perfectly rendered animals are a joy to behold". -- Kirkus Reviews, on Coyote Goes Walking "A genuinely stirring adventure story, stunninglyillustrated". -- The Washington Post Book World, on Crow and Weasel

Teaming up once again with Tom Pohrt, the illustrator of Crow and Weasel, noted environmental writer Barry Lopez offers a simply written but deeply learned fable set in the high Arctic. His story involves talking animals, wise and not so wise humans, long-nursed memories, and features of the northern landscape that are millions of years old. Like Crow and Weasel, Lessons from the Wolverine is suitable for younger readers, but older ones will cherish Lopez's nostalgia for a time when it was easier "to be near animals until they showed you something that you didn't imagine or you hadn't seen or heard."