Book #64 of 2024: Runt
Runt by Marion Dane Bauer.
Quick synopsis: Runt is born different -- he's a runt. Can he somehow make his pack leader/father proud of him?
Brief opinion: A simple but fine story. It seemed to be headed for a not-happy ending, which would have made it better in my opinion.
Plot: Set in the wild forest somewhere, a litter of wolves is born to a wolf pack. Four normal pups and one runt. Each pup is named for some trait (Hunter, Runner, Sniffer, etc), and they keep that name through their life, unless some major event changes it.
Runt (who shares his father's exact coloring) is a disappointment. He tries hard, but he can never make his father proud. Can't keep up with his siblings, he keeps making mistakes. Like having a run-in with a porcupine, which puts him in contact with humans (who remove the quills), but contact with them makes him even more of an outcast to his pack.
Bider (who at first seemed to be filling the role of Scar from Lion King), used to lead the pack, but King beat him in a fight. Bider (named for biding his time, I guess?) kept undermining King, and eventually challenged him outright. As the story goes on, Runt has to decide if he's going to stay with his family or head off with Bider.
Since this story is intended for younger readers, there's a happy ending, so you can guess which path Runt follows. Turns out [Spoiler]his father had been proud of him all along, though there had been no evidence of that through the story that I had noticed.
Writing/editing: There were a number of typos/editing issues, but only one disrupted my reading (a wolf suddenly got an entirely new name for a paragraph).
What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: For all that my write up of the plot might make it seem that the wolves were anthropomorphized, they really weren't. I liked how "basic" most of their communication was, I could see it happening with body language instead of words.
The story was really simple and basic, but it was meant for a much younger audience than me, so can't slight it for that.
Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 4 stars, liked