I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. An informative kids book about how and why wolves were brought back. Excellent environment story.

What an incredible book. So informative and shows how delicate the ecosystems are and how important it is to keep the balance.

Timely book. Every time an environment changes, it's usually for the worst. Sometimes event he attempt to fix it fails miserably. In this case, reintroducing the grey wolves to Yellowstone restored the environment! This is a short book for young children that should maybe be shared in a classroom to explain the interwoveness of nature. Art work was very nice.

First, the illustrations! Gorgeous. :)

Next, I have to say that I really enjoyed how this was written for kids to understand it easily, especially since I find the real-life situation to be fascinating. It's a perfect reminder to think of the big picture rather than just one small part of things, and to understand how we are all connected in ways that aren't immediately obvious.

And exquisite picture book illustrating the beauty, majesty and importance of having wolves a part of a healthy ecosystem.

I am so glad that I requested this book from Netgalley, as I have discovered a book that I plan to buy over and over for all the children and babies in my life.

Bringing Back the Wolves - How A Predator Restored An Ecosystem is a smart, beautiful book that teaches the reader about the history of the wolf in the Yellowstone National Park. It begins in the 1800s when the wolves were hunted, explains why wolves were eventually eradicated from the park, and why they were reintroduced in 1995. It explores all the reasons the ecosystem was thrown off balance when the wolves were removed. The artwork is beautiful and moving. Some pages were things I would frame and hang on the walls in a child's bedroom!

The book is clear and concise and eloquent. There is a great deal of information here and I think that children (and adults) would learn more with each reread. Many pages have little boxes with lots of factual information including charts and graphs. Some pages are filled with text and others are fully covered in art. The book should probably be read from cover to cover on first reading, but I can see kids sitting down and studying particular sections learning to use the glossary.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Bringing Back the Wolves
Jude Isabella
Non-fiction
Juvenile

All of life is connected and when you change one thing it changes everything around it. The people in Yellowstone National Park found this out first hand when they returned the wolves to the park. They learned that many creatures and plants need to have the wolves there to survive.
I truly enjoyed this non-fiction story and I don’t usually read non-fiction. I thought that the information was well presented in the way that the language was at the right level for the recommended readers. There weren’t too many big words that kids would not understand. Also, if a child did not understand a word there is a great glossary in the back. My favorite part of this book was the illustrations. They are so well done that they took my breath away when I first started reading.
I only have two things that I didn’t enjoy as much. The first was the size of the print. I felt the print was pretty small. I understand that it made more room for the gorgeous artwork but it made it hard for me to read and for anyone else who might have a hard time reading small print. The other thing I found difficult was that at times I felt like the author was talking about one thing in the ecosystem and the next there was a little blurb about something random that could have gone much better in another spot without confusing readers.
All in all though this is a fantastic book that I think will be a good fit for classrooms and libraries alike. Also if you have a child who loves to read non-fiction then this is a good choice.

I received a free ecopy of this book from Netgalley for my honest opinion.

Summary: In 1995, nearly 70 years after they had disappeared due to hunting, wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park. The results provide a fascinating study on how changing the top of the food chain affects all kinds of species in an ecosystem. The first and most obvious change was that elk, which had multiplied without a natural predator, were now being hunted for the first time in years. As their numbers went down, the trees they had eaten were allowed to grow. Bigger trees meant that beavers were able to return to the park in greater numbers. Coyotes got bumped down from the top of the food chain to the middle, lowering their numbers and allowing more smaller animals to thrive…which in turn attracted more birds of prey. The book also briefly touches on other factors such as drought and fire that also affected the ecosystem. Today there are more than 500 wolves in Yellowstone, balance has been restored, and scientists have had the opportunity to study the effects of reintroducing an apex predator. Includes a glossary, additional resources, and an index. 40 pages; grades 3-6.

Pros: I was planning to read this book in small chunks (I’m reading some books on my phone these days), but the story was so fascinating that I finished it in one sitting. The text is engagingly written and the illustrations add to the information, not only with pictures of the various animals but diagrams showing how they are connected to each other.

Cons: Several sidebars were labeled “It’s Elemental”, which I think referred to other elements besides the wolves that affected the ecosystem, but it wasn’t 100% clear.

I have not been this excited about a book in a long time, and I am highly recommending Bringing Back the Wolves: How a Predator Restored an Ecosystem to anyone wanting to learn more about how nature works with balance. This book is written by Jude Isabella and wonderfully illustrated by Kim Smith. This book is written for children ages 8 - 12 years, but I think this book can make a difference to even adult readers.

It tells the story of Yellowstone National Park and how one animal can make a huge difference in an ecosystem. In the 1800's the American government paid hunters to eliminate threats to livestock on ranches near the park. By 1926 every gray wolf pack was gone from Yellowstone. Once the wolves were gone, many changes were seen in the park, plants, animals, even how the streams worked were all affected by the absence of the wolves.

In 1995 the government reintroduced the gray wolves back into Yellowstone National Park as a way to reverse the course that these changes had done. Over time, Yellowstone has started to stabilize again, and we are seeing a healthy ecosystem once again starting to flourish.

Bringing Back The Wolves Science told through words and pictures

This book does an amazing job of making the science easy to understand. For example, there is a graphic on the Yellowstone Food Web and it's amazing to see how so many things are connected in this web. When the wolves were removed, the prey animals (such as the elk) grew in population because they didn't have the predator danger. So they started eating trees and new plants because there were outgrowing their food supply. This changed the landscape of Yellowstone.

Then this book explained that even the sounds of Yellowstone had changed. With huge herds of elk and the absence of howling, bird songs and even the sounds like sounds of the water running because now instead of meandering brooks that used to be shallow, the streams had become deep an straight due to the changes in the ecosystem. These are things that we might not think about, but this book teaches the reader so many things. These are just 2 examples from this story, but you will learn a lot more about the ecosystem and how it interacts with one another.

Whether you know someone that dreams of becoming a scientist or naturalist, or a child that loves a story about how good can come back in the world, Bringing Back the Wolves: How a Predator Restored an Ecosystem will be a great fit for a wide variety of readers. Learning that we can make a difference, and enjoying the exploration of the why behind the world that we live in, and all share.

I love how the illustrations work to support the information presented. Readers will learn a lot about the life cycle and how one species can impact it. I will be sharing it with teachers in grades 3-5 as well as my book selection committee.

For those who like the Ted Talk "How Wolves Change Rivers" this is a nice reading companion, especially if you have children who don't want to sit through a talk.

The book gives a nice introduction as to what the problem was before exploring the character of the wolf and its pack. From there the reader is taken on an individual or group collective exploration of the various effects of the reintroduction whether it is on specific animals, plants or even the audio experience of Yellowstone.

The illustrations themselves were a bit cartoonish for the animals but otherwise they were brightly colored and detailed. Quite a wonderful addition to the book itself, especially with the various webs to emphasize the relationships.

All in all a great little book that will help readers to understand the strength of relationships in nature, cause and effect and just how necessary each species is. A must-read for those who like nature and/or are wanting to visit Yellowstone.

***I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review***

The wolves are back in Yellowstone! But, what does that mean for the land and animals still there? Reintroducing the gray wolf set off a chain reaction throughout the park. This book explains in child-appropriate vocabulary and depth the very real effects this had on the land and its communities.

For those who love wolves, nature, and/ or are learning about food webs this book is a great resource. It is well researched and presented in appealing illustrations. Younger kids will love the art, older elementary to middle school will understand the connections and the science.

Highly recommend it!

#BringingBacktheWolves #NetGalley

Bringing Back the Wolves: How a Predator Restored an Ecosystem by Jude Isabella is just gorgeous. The illustrations are magical - the color and texture really capture each wildlife scene so well, you feel like you're there. They were so captivating. The text is in depth, so although it's a picture book, it's not a quick read. For younger kids, taking two pages at a time would be enough to engross them in the images while learning a little something. It's so full of wonderful and important information that I feel like I could get lost in it forever! So many great facts and resources, too!
I definitely plan on buying this one for my son's nature non-fiction bookshelf.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kids Can Press for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

There is certainly no shortage of books about endangered animals or efforts to restore populations. This one stands out from the crowd because it gives us the whole picture. We see first how the wolf population was destroyed and the effect that had on the entire park. We see how losing a key species nearly destroyed the ecosystem. Then, with their reintroduction, Isabella walks us step by step through how the wolves affected various animals and plants. This book functions as a palpable object lesson in the food chain and keystone species. A very cool, very easily understood book.

This book was so fascinating to see how much of an impact wolves have on the ecosystem of Yellowstone National Park. I learned so much more about niches than I could have from a textbook, and I think this would be a great read for any student.

This is a beautifully illustrated book about the impact the wolves of Yellowstone have had on the ecosystem there. Each page talks about how different animals and plants were affected when the wolves were slaughtered and then how that changed when they were reintroduced. It's very similar to a book Jean Craighead George did a few years ago.

I loved this book! It was fascinating to see how much the ecosystem in Yellowstone National Park had been changed by the elimination of wolves, and what has been restored because the wolves have returned. I hadn't known that eliminating a predator could affect the kinds of trees that grow! Seeing the change across time was sobering.

Gorgeous illustrations fill every page of this book. A hopeful anthem for the future of us all, share it with a child you love.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kids Can Press for the early digital copy.

Isabella's Bringing Back the Wolves is a middle-grade nonfiction book about the importance of conservation. It is the tale of an unintended effects of the early American government offering bounties on predator species. This resulted in wolves disappearing from what is now Yellowstone National Park. It covers the chain reaction caused by the absence of this important keystone species, and the project that reintroduced wolves back into the park. My cubs and I read this together and enjoyed it. It is very informative, without being too complicated for younger readers. The artwork is quite lovely as well. Highly recommended for any child interested in nature and animals!

***Many thanks to the Netgalley & Kids Can Press for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A good comprehensive guide to the reintroduction of wolf packs at Yellowstone National Park. The art was really lovely and the text was understandable enough for a third grade level and above. Well done book to teach kids about ecosystems and this particular incident.

The wolf population in Yellowstone National Park was decimated by hunting to the extent that by the 1920 there were no more wolves. As the years went on, scientists started to observe changes in the ecosystem. The wolves were re-introduced in the mid 1990s, and since then scientists have been noting their affect on the ecosystem, which had gotten seriously out of balance. This book looks at all the various other organisms whose populations were affected by their return to the park and explores the complexity of ecosystems and food webs.

I had thought this would be like Once a Wolf: How Wildlife Biologists Fought to Bring Back the Grey Wolf by Stephen R. Swinburne only more updated (that one was written over 20 years ago). It really isn’t, though. This solely focuses on looking at how taking out an apex predator impacts an ecosystem and how the scenario in Yellowstone taught these things to scientists through the observations they made about many other organisms and their populations before and after the wolves returned. If you’re curious how scientists came to the conclusion that wolves needed to be brought back or following the wolves' first days, months, and years in the park, Swinburne’s book does a great job of relating that. (And also what a hard fight it was to get it to happen at all.) I’ve been wanting an updated version of Swinburne’s book, and though this isn’t really that it does answer some of the questions about how the return of the wolves has impacted the ecosystem in a longer-term time period. I wish I had had this book and case study around when I taught my ecosystems unit in Biology. It would’ve made the food web and interconnectedness of species come alive more for students. I highly recommend it to those who are teaching or studying ecosystems. Also a great read for anyone planning to visit Yellowstone. It gives a heads up of some of the animals and plants to look for and each of their roles in the ecosystem. The illustrations are also quite stunning, making this a book you’re totally allowed to pick up just to look at the pictures too.

I received an ARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.