Jennifer Bove - I Wish I Was a Wolf

What if you wished you were a wolf?
Then you became a wolf pup.
Could you play like a pup?
Talk with howls and growls?
Grow up in a wolf family?
And would you want to? Find out!

Where would you live?
Wolves live all over
the northern part of the world.
They can be found in forests,
grasslands, and mountains.
They even live in the cold Arctic,
near the North Pole.

Would you like to
live here?

Wolves look like big dogs.
They act like dogs, too.
Thats because they are dogs:
wild dogs.
Wolves dont live in houses.
Wolves live far from people
with their own wolf families.

What would your family be like?
A wolf family is called a pack.
The pack has a mother, a father,
and wolf kids, called pups.

Young adults help take care of
their little brothers and sisters.

A big brother or sister
plays with the young pups
and watches for danger
while the rest of the pack
goes hunting for food.

How would you learn to be a wolf?
Wolf pups watch adult wolves
and copy what they do.
Pups practice hunting
by playing with each other.
They chase and wrestle.
They will use these skills
to hunt animals for food.

How do you practice
being a grown- up?

What would you eat?
Wolves eat meat from deer,
elk, caribou, moose, and bison.
Wolf packs work together
to hunt these large animals.

Adult wolves eat lots of meat.
Then the adults throw up mushy meat
for the young pups to eat.
Thrown- up meat is easy for pups
to chew with their little teeth.

Would you want to
eat mushy meat?

How would you wash up?
Like all dogs, wolves wash up
by licking their own fur.
Mother wolves lick their pups
until they are big enough
to bathe themselves.

Does someone
help you wash up?

How would you talk?
When wolves have something to say
they lift their noses and HOWL!
A wolf pack howls together to say,
Were a great team!
When wolves are apart
they howl to tell others,
Im over here!
Howls can be heard for many miles.

Wolves make other sounds, too.
A bark means, Watch out!
Whimpering means,
Lets be friends.

Adult wolves growl to say,
Back off!
But pups growl for fun
when they play.

Wolves talk with their bodies, too.
A wolf shows its teeth to say,
Leave me alone.
Wolves say hi by wagging tails,
sniffing, and rolling upside down.

How do you say
hi to friends?

How would growing up
change you?
Pups begin hunting with the pack
when they are six months old.
By age three, wolves are full grown.

When they grow up,
many wolves leave their parents
to find mates from other packs.
These wolves start new packs
with pups of their own.

Would you like to
grow up that fast?