Yesterday morning I finally finished reading "Keeper of the Bees" and wrote a review of that rather time-consuming read. In contrast, I read Julie of the Wolves inside of three hours last evening. Granted, it was written for elementary school-age children, so it was an easy read.
I chose this particular book because it is on the list of banned books, one of which I needed to read as part of our library's reading challenge for 2020. While looking online for information about why it had been challenged/banned, I learned "it was challenged for sexual content, offensive language, violence and being unsuited to age group." Apparently, many parents objected in particular to one passage in which Julie, only 13 years old, is assaulted by her teenage arranged-marriage husband. It is not a particularly graphic scene, and the boy (who, incidentally, is developmentally disabled) doesn't rape her.
The violence in the story is largely the violence of animals toward animals as they seek to survive the way they naturally do. I suppose that could be shocking to someone who doesn't realize animals kill and eat each other. I admit I was slightly horrified to read the part where Julie eats partially-digested and regurgitated food obtained from a wolf who is feeding its pups. At least she cooked it first.
I thought it was a good book. I learned quite a bit about Eskimo customs and how they survive in the long, cold, dark winters of the far north. And I learned a great deal about the behavior of a wolf pack.
I remember reading other books many years ago by this same author, likely obtained from the bookmobile that regularly visited our tiny school. My Side of the Mountain comes to mind, and I'm quite sure I read a few of her American Woodland Tales series, such as Vulpes the Red Fox,written with her husband, John George. Don't hesitate to give these books a try!