Jala and the Wolves

July 6, 2015
In a chapter book fantasy laced with references to fiction and food, when six-year-old spitfire Jala—who has untamed hair, dark eyes, and a preference for eating out of the dog bowl—annoys her mother after she complains about being hungry for breakfast one morning, she is promptly sent back to her room. After noticing that a strange mirror has appeared there, Jala is magically transported to a woodland world, where she has been transformed into her favorite animal, a wolf. She promptly meets a wolf named Milo, who believes that she is a legend incarnate, an alpha wolf that has been sent from the sky (“She didn’t have the heart to tell him that she was only a girl from New Orleans who got sucked into a mirror and not the Great Dog come to life at all”). Though the story is slow to get underway and relies on an overused cliché to bring Jala back home at book’s end, Jala’s independent streak and her tender relationship with her mother help smooth over the story’s rougher moments. Ages 5–10.