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The Whispering Mountain (GoldenEars, #1)

Jane H. Wood

Why we're reading this: Literary fiction. Middle grade to adult readers.
Animal fiction/adventure.
A story about wolves and the fri…more
[close] Literary fiction. Middle grade to adult readers.
Animal fiction/adventure.
A story about wolves and the friendship between a teenage boy and a very unusual wolf pup... a wolf with golden ears.

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Jun 18, 2025 James Murray rated it it was amazing

GoldenEars is a story that will warm your heart as you become immersed in a wonderful tale about a teen’s bond with a young wolf pup who becomes separated from his pack when the wolves consider his unusual ears and coloring not only different but a bad omen, even with the acceptance and love of the pup’s family.
Edmund accompanies his dad on an extended trip to commune with nature when he befriends Kegg, a young wolf pup who is struggling to stay alive while alone in nature. An enduring bond betw ...more

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Feb 15, 2023 Carole Parkes rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I really didn't know what to expect when I began this book as I usually read purely human stories. I can only say I was hooked from the very beginning with the wonderful descriptive setting of lush forests, fast flowing rivers, and the closeness of the wolf family this book focuses on. Honest portrayals of how the animals struggle to survive through the different seasons with the varying supply of prey animals, sometimes plentiful and at other times sparse. I was fully transfixed and happy getti ...more

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May 30, 2019 Bonnye Reed rated it really liked it

Shelves: kindle-or-pdf, read-2020, historical-canadian, canadian, coming-of-age, family-drama

I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Jane H. Wood, and The Book Guild. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. I have added this British author, Jane H. Wood, to my favorite authors, and I am pleased to recommend her to friends and family. She writes a smooth story with a great deal of heart.

It is the breaking of the spring of 1972 in the southern wilderness o I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Jane H. Wood, and The Book Guild. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. I have added this British author, Jane H. Wood, to my favorite authors, and I am pleased to recommend her to friends and family. She writes a smooth story with a great deal of heart.

It is the breaking of the spring of 1972 in the southern wilderness of Canada's Northwest Territories. We are established in the mindset of a pair of grey wolves, the female Mira and her mate Joel, awaiting the birth of their new litter of pups, males Tuke, Glyth, runt Kegg, and daughter Skeena. Both Glyth and Kegg has unusual ears - ears that tilt and droop toward their eyes with golden hairs that extend past the points of those ears. The wolf family goes through life-threatening weather, illegal hunters, attacks by their own wolf pack who expel Joel and Mira when they refuse to allow the golden eared boys to be killed for their differences, which the wolf pack decides is the cause of the failure of the spring return of their normal hooved prey. When the family is attacked, Glyth is injured by a bite that involves his hip joint. Homeless and without allies, the family find themselves in extreme danger and only able to move slowly with the youngsters and crippled Glyth.

Eventually, after many trials and tribulations, we will see this tale through the eyes of Edmund Rainer, a rather frail 15-year-old boy who develops an extraordinary relationship with Kegg, whom he calls GoldenEars due to the unusual feathery golden hairs in the cub's ear tips. Ed saves 6-month-old Kegg from drowning with CPR when he is separated from his wolf family by raging floodwaters after a heavy spring rain. Edmund is not able to resuscitate the larger pup Glyth, washed up on the same curve in the river, but he does take him from the river's edge and hides the body from predators, leaving his scent on poor Glyth, before he and GoldenEars return to the wilderness cabin being rented by Edmund's Dad Sam and family friend Bert. It takes the canid family several days to track down Edmund and Kegg, who is secretly living in the tool shed while Sam and Bert are home and running wild with Edmund while the men are out fishing. The wolf family and the Rainers go through life-threatening weather, Edmund is injured by stepping into a bear trap and then is accidentally shot twice by forest rangers mistaking him for the illegal hunters who are killing the wolves who normally range in that territory. When it's time to return home from the hospital where Edmund was treated for weeks, the Rainer family goes through the Huxforest Wildlife Reserve to check on GoldenEars and Glyth who were sent there for Veteraniran care which entailed surgery for Glyth.
Edmund makes up his mind to become a forest ranger much to his over-protective mother's despair. The family makes a couple of trips over to check on the wolf pups. Eventually, Kegg is located yet again by his wolf family and 'rescued' with the help of Edmund. Kegg's relationship with Edmund remains close and their adventures are interesting and heartwarming. The almost instinctive fear and loathing directed at the wolf species by humankind is presented in an abstract way but there is still a bit of pain along the way. An excellent book for reading aloud to youngsters. And it warmed my old heart, as well.

This book was lost for a year in an old Kindle account - so sorry to be so slow in reading and reviewing.
pub date April 28, 2019
rec May 15, 2019
The Book Guild
Reviewed on Goodreads, Netgalley, AmazonSmiles, Barnes&Nobles, BookBub, Kobo, and GooglePlay on May 26, 2020. ...more

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