In 6th grade, our teacher (Miss Bock) made us do diaramas for our book reports. One kid made a diarama of Call of the Wild that was amazing.  You looked through an aperture at the end of the shoebox and there were trees & the dog & snow drifts, the whole nine yards.  Meanwhile, for my book, Jonathon Livingston Seagull, I pasted blue paper in the bottom of a box & glued in a seagull.  I believe our grades reflected our respective efforts.

Reading Call of the Wild as an adult, one realizes that it's not actually written for kids.  Seemingly the tale of a dog in Alaska, it is actually an argument that our primitive natures lurk just beneath a thin veneer of civilization.

The fact that it can be read & enjoyed by youngsters is just a bonus.

(Reviewed:)

Grade: (A) Orrin C. Judd

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