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231 pages, Hardcover
First published August 25, 2015
”Feo could not remember a time when she had not known and loved the wolves. It was impossible not to love them: They were so lean and beautiful and uncompromising. Wolves made sense to her; wolves were one of the few things worth dying for.”But their peaceful world is shattered when one of their wolves kills the czar’s prized horse, and a general by the name of Rakov comes into their own private world, shattering the once peaceful atmosphere. When he takes Feo’s mama, it’s up to her, her wolves, and a few new friends made along the way to stop him... and spark a revolution.
”’He doesn’t like you.’You might have to suspend some disbelief in the fact that there was a separate children’s revolution in Russia (which never happened), but this book contains such a powerful message, especially at this politically tumultuous time. Children are our future, whether we want to believe it or not, and oftentimes their words, actions and ideas can make all the difference.
‘Why not?’
‘Because I don’t like you. And he can feel it.’
‘Well, stop it!’
‘Disliking you?’
‘Yes! Now! Stop it immediately!’
‘You very much started it! You’re pointing a gun at me.’”
”Mikal Rakov started all this. Rakov came in the night and burned down our home. He took my mama away, because he was afraid of her. He was afraid that she wasn’t afraid. He’s taking our food and homes. And he’s taking the people we love. And he’s taking our future. And the future needs our protection: It’s a fragile thing. The future needs all the help it can get.
Rakov wants to kill my mama. He wants to use today to take her away from me forever. But I- I am the wolf girl, and I am not afraid of him!
He’s blind in one eye because of me. But he’s always been blind: He doesn’t see the facts. The fact that there are more than us than there are of him. The fact that fire in your soul beats fire on the ground. The fact that love always beats fear. And the fact that it helps to have wolves on your side.
He saw no reason to take the things he wanted. He thought fear was the most powerful thing in the world. He thought fear had the most kick- he thought we’d care more about being safe than being bold. And I’d rather be bold. We’ve got to say, You do not get to take anything more.”
“Wolves are the witches of the animal world.”
"Aristocrats in Russia believe that the killing of a wolf brings a unique kind of bad luck. (...) If you kill a wolf, they say, your life begins to disappear. (...) So the wolf must not be shot, nor starved; instead, it is packed up like a parcel by nervous butlers and sent away to the wolf wilder."
"Stories can start revolutions."